The Dark of the Day
by CMPerry
Summary: A case takes the team out to Arizona where seven people have been murdered. All is going well until an unexpected turn of events leaves the team fighting for their lives. Trapped and scared, secrets are revealed that make the stakes even higher.
1. Assertion

_People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within._ – Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

* * *

Aaron Hotchner sat in the conference room with the rest of his team, waiting for JJ to outline their new case. He thought she looked distracted as she thumbed through the file in front of her.

"Okay, Pima County, Arizona," she said once David Rossi had taken his seat. "There have been seven murders in the Green Valley area in the last four weeks."

"Seven?" Prentiss echoed. "And they're only inviting us in _now?_"

"Yeah. The most recent murder was a family of three taken from their car; a mother, father and their six year old daughter."

"Why weren't we called in sooner?" Rossi asked, looking through his own file and running his finger down a list of dates. "Up until now it's been one victim every Saturday night... it screams serial killer," Rossi said.

"Because the Unsub's burial site was only found a few hours ago, revealing the bodies of all seven victims. There was no evidence that they had been murdered until now."

JJ brought up the crime scene photos on the screen behind her. Seven bodies lay in badly made coffins in deep pits in the ground. All the victims were in separate graves except for the family, who were buried together. The mother still had her arms around her little girl. The child's eyes were closed but the woman's were wide open, dull and glassy with an echo of fear still reflected in them. All six of them stared at the screen for a moment and no one spoke.

"He doesn't seem to have a type," JJ continued, dragging her eyes away from the dead family, "but his M.O. is always the same. He keeps his victims for almost a day and then buries them alive."

"Any prints at the crime scenes or on the bodies?" asked Prentiss.

"Absolutely nothing so far, he's very organised - " JJ was cut off by the sound of raised voices from the bullpen. There were heavy footsteps and the door flew open.

"JJ, I need to talk to you." Hotch turned to see JJ's husband, Will, standing in the doorway looking grim. Her face fell.

"I'm busy," she said, mortified.

"Now."

"Excuse me," she said to the rest of the team, her cheeks flushing.

"Will, I am _working_," they heard her say before she shut the door behind her. The second the door closed, Morgan, Prentiss and Reid hurried to the conference room window and peered out at the tense couple who had moved in to the middle of the bullpen. Rossi caught Hotch's gaze and rolled his eyes at the agents all pressed against the glass like children who had just noticed it was snowing.

Hotch didn't make quite so much of a scene, but he also glanced out the window to watch JJ. Will was standing, feet apart, voice raised, shoulders back; all the classic signs of an attempt at dominance. But JJ was more than holding her own. Although she was an inch or two shorter than Will, she had drawn herself up to her full height and was firmly returning his gaze even when he raised his voice.

Hotch stood and cleared his throat. "I think they would appreciate a little privacy."

The three younger agents came slowly back to their seats exchanging half troubled, half curious looks but before they could sit down, the door flew open again. This time it was Garcia, bursting in to the grey office in a flurry of pink and sparkles.

"I'm so sorry guys," she said. "I met Will out in the hall and I told him that you were busy and that he couldn't disturb you but he wouldn't listen! He was just yelling at me asking where JJ was and when I said I didn't know he said I was trying to keep him away from her and that this team has been turning against him for months and then he saw you guys through the window and I couldn't stop him I just feel terrible!" she finished, brandishing her bejewelled hands.

"It's not your fault, Pen," Prentiss said. "It seems like Will is a man on a mission, I don't think you could have stopped him."

"But I should have done something, oh gosh, JJ will be so embarrassed."

Morgan approached her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Don't beat yourself up about this, Baby Girl."

"But I should have done something. I suck at being assertive."

"No you don't, you're assertive with me all the time," Morgan said.

"And me sometimes," said Prentiss.

"And me," Hotch said. Garcia gave an apologetic little smile and pushing her bright green glasses back up to the bridge of her nose.

"Now," he continued, "let's get back to work." Having been briefed on the case already, Hotch stood before the rest of his team and picked up where JJ had left off. Garcia scooted out the room before any crime scene photos appeared. All the while, he kept a close eye on the couple arguing in the middle of the bullpen.

* * *

"I can't believe you would come here," JJ said, her cheeks still burning from embarrassment.

"How else was I going to speak to you? Damn it, I feel like I don't see you anymore," Will said.

"You don't!"

"And that's my fault? I'm not here to make amends, JJ. I get that you are punishing me, but you're making Henry suffer too."

"Don't you dare bring Henry in to this!" she said, clenching her trembling fists. "Don't you dare suggest that I am not a good mother to him!"

"Well how to you expect to be a good mother when you are never around?" JJ took a step back from him, trying to control herself before she said something she would regret.

"I see him as often as I can, he knows why I'm not always around. Don't try and guilt trip me, Will, I'm not the one with a reason to feel guilty!"

"JJ I am telling you, don't go on this case."

"You're telling me?" She gave an incredulous laugh. "You do not get to tell me what to do, you have no right, especially after - "

"Is everything okay here?" JJ turned to see that Hotch had appeared from nowhere and was standing by her side.

"Yes. Fine. I'll be right in," she said, watching Will with a steely gaze. "We're done here."

Will threw up his hands in frustration, shooting Hotch an angry look.

"Fine. Suit yourself. I'll just explain to Henry why his mommy isn't around to see him grow up. I'll see you when you get back, if you can make the effort."

She felt like he had just punched her in the stomach. He slammed the glass door on his way out and pounded the elevator button with his thumb. Only when the elevator doors slid shut did JJ allow her eyes to fill with angry tears.

"I don't need you to save me," she said, rounding on Hotch who was hovering protectively by her side, her temper still running high. "I can handle a domestic by myself."

"I wasn't coming to save you," he said. "I came to make sure you didn't kill your husband. I'd rather not have a murder in the middle of my department; the paperwork would be a nightmare."

She looked up at him, still mortified. He was watching her calmly with one eyebrow slightly raised.

"If you need any time off..."

"I don't," she said abruptly. She pulled her blonde hair in to a sleek ponytail and started to walk back towards the team. "Thank you, but I don't." He followed her on to the gangway, sticking his head in to the conference room where everyone, including Rossi, was now gathered by the window.

"We'll finish discussing the case on the jet. Wheels up in thirty."

* * *

**A/N Thanks for reading, please review if you have a moment. This is a story I've been sitting on for almost two years and I finally found the courage to actually upload it for your scrutiny. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Things are about to get pretty tough for the team! I'll update weekly, possibly more often than that so please do stay tuned and leave a comment with any feedback, positive or constructive! Take care - CMPerry x**


	2. Green Valley, AZ

**Green Valley, Arizona**

While the air was developing a definite chill back in Virginia, it was still warm and humid in Pima County. The team stepped out of the shiny black SUVs that had been waiting for them at the airport and in to the still powerful midday sun. Reid undid his top shirt button, Morgan took off his leather jacket and Prentiss rolled up the sleeves of her green sweater. Only Hotch remained formal with his suit jacket on and collar buttoned. An older man limped out of the Sheriff's Department and approached the group.

"Sheriff Falconer," JJ said, extending her hand to the man in front of her. "I'm SSA Jennifer Jareau, we spoke on the phone. These are SSAs Hotchner, Morgan, Prentiss, Rossi and Dr Reid."

"Thanks for coming," the older man said. He must have been pushing seventy and there was a slight Texan accent to his voice. "I've got an office set up for you in the back. I gotta tell you, in the twenty five years I've been here, I ain't never seen anything like this."

"Unfortunately, we have," Hotch said. The Sheriff limped off and the team followed him in to the mercifully cool building and through the unfamiliar bullpen. "I would like to send my agents out to look at the crime scenes, accompanied by some of your detectives if possible," Hotch added.

"We've already been over the crime scenes with a fine toothed comb," Sheriff Falconer said, "but I guess a fresh set of eyes never hurt." He waved over two detectives.

"This is Detective Holmes," he said, indicating the tall, sandy haired cop that had approached them. He looked like he was in his early forties. He was wearing a white shirt with a grey tie and his eyebrows seemed to be creased in to a perpetual frown.

"And this is his partner, Detective Watts." Behind him, Hotch heard Morgan give a little cough. Watts, a young, slightly hesitant looking man shook everyone's hand in turn. Holmes just gave a polite nod.

"We've cleared some space for you in here," the Sheriff said and showed them in to a little glass walled office. A large table sat in the middle of the room and a whiteboard covered most of one of the walls.

"I'll leave you to get settled," he said, and backed out of the office. When the door clicked shut, Morgan turned to Prentiss who had her lips pressed tightly together, trying not to laugh.

"Holmes and Watts?" Morgan said. "Like Holmes and Watson?"

"If his first name is Sherlock, that will make my day," Rossi said, smiling.

There was a time when Hotch might have cracked a smile at the coincidental names of the detectives, but his sense of humour had been shelved a while ago. Beside him, Rossi stifled a yawn and it spread like a disease around the room, a Mexican wave of yawns as everyone else covered their mouths or, in Morgan's case, just stretched his mouth widely and presented the room with a clear view of his tonsils. Everyone in the team was tired. They had only just returned from a five day case in New Hampshire when they got the call about Arizona. They all needed a break, but no one was showing the strain as much as JJ. He glanced over to her staring blankly out of the window, biting her nails. The usually serene agent had been out of character for weeks. Hotch moved around the table to put down his go-bag. As he passed JJ, he took her hand away from her mouth.

"Stop worrying," he said.

Morgan's cell phone began to ring.

"Hey, Baby Girl, you're on speaker," he said.

"Oh, the more people who know about our undying love the better, my angel," she said. Morgan smiled. He put the cell phone in the middle of the table so everyone could hear what information the technical analyst had collected for them.

"Now," she continued, "here's the lowdown. Green Valley, Arizona has a population of about 17,000. It's part of Pima County and is home to the Pima County Sheriff's Department, but you know that already because that is where you are standing, I would imagine. As a point of interest, Green Valley is home to one of the very few Rhenium mines in the U.S."

Her last statement was met by questioning looks from most of the Agents.

"Rhenium is one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust," Reid explained, "not to mention one of the most expensive at about four thousand five hundred and seventy five dollars per kilogram. It's used to make jet and rocket engines and even to treat liver cancer."

"I totally knew that," Garcia said, sounding a little put out that Reid had beaten her to the interesting information. "Now, Pima County has a fairly high crime rate in comparison to the rest of Arizona, although it is mostly property crime. Safe to say that seven murders in four weeks is a kinda out of the ordinary for little ol' Pima."

"Thanks, Garcia," said Hotch.

"No problem, Hot Stuff." Hotch turned to stare at the phone and Morgan gave a snort of laughter.

"Oh my God, sir, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that, it's a force of habit, it's usually Morgan that... I mean, not that you aren't... you're lovely but that wasn't meant for you, I... oh God."

"Just hang up, Garcia," JJ said from her perch on the window ledge.

"Yeah. Okay. Bye. Oh God."

"Okay," Hotch said, still eyeing the phone with a frown. "I want everyone to split up and profile the crime scenes. There's every chance that we will see something that the local cops missed. Reid, I want you here with me to interview the families and work on the profile."

The team dispersed, Reid tucked his wavy hair behind his ears and started drawing up titles on the big whiteboard on the far side of the room.

Outside, Hotch saw Prentiss approach Watts.

"Hey, can you take me to the family's abduction site? I'd like to go over it again."

"Sure, it's only a half mile from here," the young detective said.

"Great." She turned and headed for the door. "The game's afoot Watson."

"It's Watts."

* * *

When the team returned, night had fallen. The fall days were short and warm here, but after the sun set, the temperatures plummeted. By six o'clock that evening, it was almost completely dark outside. They congregated in the back room and shared what little they had gleaned from their day.

By the time they had all finished reporting their findings, it was painfully clear that they had almost nothing to go on.

"This Unsub isn't stupid, he has left absolutely no evidence," Morgan said. "We've got nothing."

"Let's stop focussing on what we don't know then," said Hotch snappily, standing up to pace in front of the whiteboards. But he immediately regretted his tetchiness. He looked at his team and saw that they were as weary and exasperated as he felt, and he felt a familiar rush of gratitude for their loyalty and friendship, although he could never properly articulate his feelings to them. "Okay," he continued, more gently, "what _do_ we know?"

"The Unsub is probably a Green Valley resident; he's familiar with the area. He is organised, there was no sign of a struggle so he either knew his victims or he was charming enough that they didn't suspect him," Rossi said, leaning back in his chair.

"Of the three family members who were taken from their car, only the father showed signs of assault. The mother and the little girl just had ligature marks," said Prentiss, who had spent the afternoon in the M.E.'s office with Detective Watts.

"Was there a sexual element to the father's assault?" Hotch asked.

"None," Prentiss said.

"Well he's clearly got unresolved anger with a father-figure in his life."

"At any rate, this Unsub is accelerating rapidly, he can't maintain this level of organisation and control for long," Hotch said.

"So we have to wait for him to kill again and hope he messes up?" Morgan asked, sounding less than pleased with the notion.

Before Hotch could reply, the room went dark. In fact, as they would soon find out, the entire town did. Someone let out a high-pitched squeal. Hotch reached in to his inside jacket pocket for his flashlight and clicked it on. JJ had her hand on Rossi's arm, looking slightly alarmed but it wasn't her who had let out the little noise of fright. Reid was hanging on to Prentiss's arm looking like a startled deer. When Hotch shone the flashlight on him, he straightened up, trying to regain some form of dignity.

Prentiss smiled and patted the jumpy young doctor sympathetically on the shoulder and Morgan gave him a good natured shove.

"Scaredy-cat," he said, but abruptly stopped laughing when the door behind them creaked open loudly in the dark. Slow shuffling footsteps entered the room. A chair scraped across the floor.

Hotch's flashlight was quickly joined by three more as Morgan, JJ and Rossi also pointed theirs towards the door.

"Woah," said Sheriff Falconer, putting his hand up to shield his eyes from the glare. "Didn't mean to startle ya," he said, glancing over to Reid who was now standing slightly behind Morgan. "Seems like we've had a bit of a power outage. They're getting pretty common round these parts. We probably won't have the power back 'til morning so you might want to take an early night."

Morgan groaned his disapproval. "We have an Unsub who could another entire family in the next thirty-six hours and we're just going to go to our hotel?"

"No. We're going to stay if that's alright, Sheriff," Hotch said.

"Sure, you do whatever you gotta do to catch this guy," he said. "I'll hunt down some candles for you. I tell you, there's gonna be a lot of happy miners tonight."

"Why is that?" Rossi asked. The Sheriff stopped on his way out to answer.

"They don't need to work when there's no power. No point in them mining for something they can't see."

Hotch held his flashlight high and moved round the table in the middle of the room. He sat down, pulling his notes towards him and was joined a few seconds later by the rest of the team. No one was prepared to let a power outage stop them from catching this Unsub. But several hours and several cups of cold coffee later, they had to call it a night. By dim candlelight they had managed to scrape together a preliminary profile, but it wasn't much to go on. All they could do now was get some rest and pray that the Unsub didn't kill again before the morning.

* * *

**A/N Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed and as always, reviews are very much appreciated! C x**


	3. Wide Awake

The team arrived their allocated hotel, the Green Valley Inn, a big sand-coloured building with palm trees in a neat row outside. Each tree was lit from the bottom by a small spotlight, painting a regular pattern of light and shadow across the black ground. Hotch was pleased to see that there were more lights on inside the hotel, albeit dim ones. While everyone else climbed from the car and collected their bags, Hotch glanced up at the cloudless and cold night. The sky was a uniform deep blue and he was surprised by how many more stars appeared when the city lights were out. Some were bright and clear but others were soft and flickering and only visible when you didn't look too hard. They walked up the paved courtyard and in through the automatic glass doors. It was pleasantly warm in the lobby after several hours of sitting in the Sheriff's office where a biting desert chill had started to creep in.

Hotch waited with the rest of the team who were congregating around the couches in the lobby while Rossi headed to the reception desk to check them in. The reception area was small and homely with red patterned carpets and dark wood furniture. After putting down their go-bags, they were approached almost immediately by a woman in her mid-thirties with short brown hair, dressed in a navy blue skirt suit.

"Hi, welcome to Best Western Green Valley Inn," she said, shaking Hotch's hand vigorously and for much longer than necessary as she beamed around at the rest of them. "It is an absolute pleasure to have you. We apologise for the power outage, but thankfully we have a backup generator which means that you can still make full use of the showers and the heated pool and there are emergency lights all over the hotel so you can see where you are going!" She was speaking very fast, apparently thrilled at the idea of having real FBI agents in her hotel.

"Since it is almost golfing season I'm afraid we are a little busy; we only have double rooms available so you'll have to pair up. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

"It's not a problem," said Hotch. "As long as we have somewhere to sleep, we don't mind." She gave him another wide smile before walking over to the reception to join her colleague. It wasn't the first time they had had to share rooms, nor would it be the last. For Hotch, at least, it was never much of an inconvenience but almost as soon as the woman was out of earshot, there was an eruption of bickering.

"I'm not sharing with Rossi," said Reid quickly.

"That's not fair, man, I was with him last time," said Morgan.

"Well I'm not sharing with him, that's just weird," said Prentiss.

"Aw, take one for the team, Emily," Morgan said.

"No! I'm not sharing a room with him," she said.

"What's the problem?" Hotch asked, confused as to why sharing with Rossi was such an issue.

"Haven't you even shared a room with Rossi?" JJ asked.

"Not for a long time," he said. "Why?"

"Rossi snores," she explained.

"_Really _badly," added Morgan. "The last time we shared a room, I was ready to suffocate him. Anything to make the noises stop." Reid nodded earnestly in agreement.

"Well, Emily and I should share," said JJ. "So it's between you boys."

"Look, I shared with him before," said Morgan to Reid. "It's your turn, kid."

"No way! I'm not backing down on this one, Morgan. I shared with him in that B&B in Connecticut two months ago."

Both men turned slowly to look at Hotch.

"Fine," he said. Personally, he thought they were all being a little childish. Rossi's snoring couldn't be _that_ bad.

A moment later, Rossi returned with three little envelopes containing their key-cards. When Reid reached out to take his, Morgan took the opportunity to hang his go-bag on the younger man's outstretched arm.

"Take that up to our room, would you kid? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm going for a quick swim before I hit the hay."

"Oh, count me in," said Prentiss, looping the strap of her bag over Reid's head. The young doctor sighed.

"I want you all back down here at seven a.m.," Hotch said as they turned to walk away but by the time he had finished speaking, they were already out the lobby door, becoming shadowy shapes against the gentle blue light of the pool.

JJ took Emily's bag from around Reid's neck and looped it over her shoulder.

"You okay?" Hotch asked quietly, so as not to attract the attention of the other agents.

"Fine," she said, with a little nod, as though she was trying to convince herself as much as Hotch.

"Here." Rossi approached them and took both go-bags from JJ. "You coming, kiddo?" She turned and smiled, the first smile Hotch had seen on her face since her argument with Will.

"You head up, I'm going to call and say goodnight to Henry." JJ went to stand outside the front doors and only Hotch and Reid remained in the lobby. He thought for a moment that Reid looked sad but his attention was diverted when he heard Prentiss scream. He looked out the glass doors and although they were no more than silhouettes, he could see that Morgan had thrown Prentiss over his shoulder and was getting ready to plunge in to the pool, kicking the pile of their discarded clothes out of the way. For a moment Hotch contemplated giving them a lecture on professionalism but he didn't have the energy and if he was honest, he hadn't seen either of them happy for a long time. They deserved a break. A sudden thought crossed Hotch's mind and he turned to Reid.

"Did either of them bring a bathing suit?"

"Nope."

* * *

Reid slept badly that night, cold and miserable. He lay curled in the top corner of the bed with three pairs of socks on. Morgan was sleeping spread-eagled, somehow occupying all of the sizeable mattress. Several times Reid tried to push Morgan back over to his own side of the bed, but it was in vain. He considered waking Morgan up, but decided against it. Waking a strong, alpha male FBI agent in the middle of the night was probably not the best idea and it would almost certainly result in some kind of injury. Not to mention that Reid was fairly sure Morgan slept with his gun under his pillow.

In the next room, Hotch was having an equally bad night. Rossi's snoring was unbelievable. Hotch had no idea how so much noise could come from one person. As the night went on, the idea of beating his old friend to death with a pillow was becoming increasingly more inviting.

Every so often, a strip of light would slide across the yellow walls of the hotel room as the headlights of a passing car cut through the gap in the curtains. Hotch counted the passing vehicles, hoping to lull himself to sleep but his mind kept drifting to the latest murder victims, the young family stolen from their own car in the middle of a dark street.

Perhaps the mother had held her terrified daughter to her chest as the Unsub shovelled dirt on top of them. Perhaps the father raked at the wood of their makeshift coffin until his nails cracked and his fingers bled, not once giving up on the hope of saving his family until his lungs took their last painful, desperate breath. His dark thoughts melted in to dreams and for just a few seconds he was asleep. Then Rossi rolled on to his back and made a noise that sounded something akin to a fighter jet.

Hotch dragged himself out of bed, picked up his gun and slid it in to the waistband of his grey sweatpants. He stood for a moment and rubbed his eyes before he headed for the door, grabbing a sweater on the way. It was a brown sweater, the same one he had worn when the team had travelled to the woods of Pennsylvania to hunt down Shane Wyland who had been abducting and killing young boys. It was strange how things like pieces of clothing, places, or names could take on a grizzly significance when your job revolved around the the most disturbed and twisted people in the world.

He knew he was going to have to endure yet another sleepless night, so he sat down in the hallway with his back against the cold wall and waited for morning.

The low rumble of passing traffic had all but disappeared as the night wore on and the crescent moon drained the narrow corridor of color and filled it instead with a wash of bluish-white light. After several hours of silence, Hotch heard a door open at the end of the corridor and JJ walked up the hallway and entered her room. She hadn't noticed Hotch sitting in the shadows. A few minutes later, she re-emerged, inching the door closed behind her with a look of intense concentration as she tried not to wake Emily. She had changed in to her pyjamas, a loose-fitting mint green camisole and matching shorts. She looked pretty. Still not realising she had company, she leaned against the wall with her head tipped back, staring at the ceiling, taking deep, calming breaths.

"JJ?" She jumped and looked around.

"Hotch," she said, as she finally located where the voice had come from. "You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry." She came and sat beside him on the green and yellow patterned carpet. "Where have you been? It's almost two," he said.

"I was on the phone with Will. Why are you still up?"

"Rossi's snoring."

"It's terrible isn't it?"

"I've never heard anything like it," he said. "Maybe we've finally unravelled the mystery of why his three wives left him." JJ gave a little laugh and Hotch actually felt the beginnings of a smile pulling on his lips but his frown returned when he looked at JJ.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's nothing," she said with a convincing smile. She would appear to anyone else as the epitome of composure and grace but underneath that, she was struggling with something. He wished JJ wouldn't be so guarded when it came to her personal life, but he realised how hypocritical that was.

"JJ."

"Really, Hotch, it's nothing," she said. "We're investigating the murder of seven people. One of them was a little girl who suffocated in her mother's arms. I'm not going to sit here and complain about my problems when they really don't matter."

"They matter to me." She looked at him for a long moment. "There will always be someone who is in a worse position than you, JJ, but that doesn't mean you lose the right to be miserable every once in a while." She wrapped her arms around herself, and Hotch saw little goosebumps running up her arms.

"Here," he said, pulling off his brown sweater and handing it to her, immediately feeling a rush of cold air against his exposed arms.

"Thanks," she said. The sleeves fell several inches past her hands but she didn't bother rolling them up. She studied him for a little while longer before giving a resigned sigh, "So, Will apologised for yelling at me," she said.

"Good. What were you talking about?"

"Everything, really. We've done nothing but fight for the past six months but we haven't really talked to each other. It was nice to finally get everything out in the open."

"And?"

"He's moving out."

"I'm sorry, JJ."

"Don't be. It's been a long time coming. He was right though, I do need to spend more time with Henry."

"You're considering leaving the BAU aren't you?" Hotch asked.

"It's crossed my mind," she admitted.

"I nearly left after Haley died."

"What stopped you?"

"I wanted Jack to be proud of what I do. There is nothing more important to me than being a good father to him, but I wouldn't be setting a very good example for him if I gave up on the job I love, the job I've worked so hard for." JJ nodded. "And besides, he thinks I'm some kind of superhero and I spend my days saving lives, so that's pretty cool."

"That's what Henry thinks too," JJ said.

"Of course the choice is completely up to you," Hotch said, "but you should know if you ever decided to leave the BAU, I won't stop until I get you back."

She smiled. "You make a compelling argument, Agent Hotchner."

They continued talking about their children, reminiscing about their early years in the BAU and then they were just chatting about nothing in particular. The conversation was easy and comfortable and they talked until the cool morning sunlight started to ooze over the horizon. Then for the first time in three hours, there was silence between them and it didn't take a profiler to see that there was still something she had left unsaid.

"Listen, Hotch. There's something I really need to tell you - "

At that moment, Reid emerged from his room wearing several pairs of socks and a scarf with his hair standing up at all angles. He slid down the wall, landing with a thump and a groan on the prickly carpet on JJ's other side. He didn't greet them, he just covered his eyes and said,

"Can I _please _kill Morgan?"

"Why?" asked Hotch.

"Because he is taking up the _entire_ bed. It is four a.m., I can't sleep and I am so tired and so cold." Hotch looked over to him. The poor kid looked exhausted with his knees curled up to his chin and his head in his hands.

"What are you guys doing up anyway?" he asked.

"Just talking," said JJ. "I'm actually going to go back to bed, I'll see you guys in a few hours." She moved to pull off Hotch's brown sweater.

"Keep it," he said. She smiled and stood, the sweater falling past her knees making it look like she was wearing a deeply unfashionable dress. And just like that, it was no longer the Pennsylvania-serial-killer sweater; it had a brand new, much more pleasant significance.

"Goodnight, Spence," JJ said, ruffling his hair as she passed him. "Night Hotch."

Hotch felt a little pang of regret as JJ's bedroom door closed. The entire team spent incredible amounts of time together as co-workers, but it wasn't very often that they got to be together as friends.

"I hate sharing rooms," Reid moaned. "I think the only good night's sleep I had was when I shared with you or Prentiss because you sleep like a normal people and not like a giant, annoying, cover-stealing starfish." Hotch held back a smile as the usually eloquent doctor turned in to a six-year-old before his very eyes. Reid sighed and rubbed his eyes, resting his head on his knees for a moment before pushing himself to his feet.

"Well, I guess I'll go murder Morgan," Reid said.

"I guess I'll go strangle Rossi."

"Goodnight."

* * *

**A/N Thanks for reading. As always, any reviews - positive or constructive - are very much appreciated! The next few chapters are set to be quite dramatic, so stay tuned!**


	4. Fox Trap

**A/N So this is where the fun begins. The last part of this chapter is the beginning of a tough couple of days for the BAU. Stay tuned - CMPerry x**

* * *

"_Love is not a feeling of happiness. Love is a willingness to sacrifice._" Michael Novak

* * *

The team congregated in the Pima County Sheriff's Department early the next day, blissfully unaware that in a few hours they would all be fighting for their lives. Hotch had only managed to get a couple of hours sleep leaning against the cold wall in the hallway. He had climbed back in to bed a half hour before Rossi's alarm was due to go off and lay there for a little while until Rossi woke, and feigned a good night's sleep. It wasn't much rest but it was enough to allow him to look at the profile with fresh eyes. By midday, after a lot of brainstorming, dead ends and help from Garcia they had a name for their Unsub: Robert Fox.

"I remember that kid," Watts said, as the team stood in front of twenty Pima County cops. "His mom died when he was seven, and after that he got all messed up. His dad, Jacob, started drinking and beating him, or so people said." Hotch already knew this. He also knew that when Robert Fox was six he had come to the police for help when his father started abusing him and was completely ignored.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hotch noticed Sheriff Falconer shift uncomfortably against the table he was leaning on.

"Why wasn't Robert Fox's abuse allegation taken seriously?" Hotch asked, interrupting an officer. The room fell silent. Several people turned their gaze to the Sheriff. Again, the old man looked uncomfortable.

"He was just a kid, he was lookin' for attention, that's all," he said.

"Weren't you concerned when he ended up in hospital several times a year?" Hotch continued. He knew he should be having this conversation in private but he couldn't help himself.

"He was a clumsy kid."

"Damn it, no he wasn't!"The whole team turned to see Detective Holmes standing at the back of the group, watching the Sheriff with fury. "You knew that kid was being beaten and you didn't do a damn thing about it. I saw him come in here twenty years ago, crying and covered in bruises and you ignored him. You sent a six year old boy home to the man that was beating him just because you wouldn't accept that Jacob Fox - your goddamn golfing partner - was a drunk, violent, abusive son of a bitch!"

The Sheriff rose to his feet with fury in his eyes. "Take a walk, Detective," he said. "Right now."

Holmes held the Sheriff's gaze for a moment longer before kicking away his chair and storming from the bullpen.

Sheriff Falconer sat back down and said nothing. The two dozen men and women gathered there were watching the Sheriff uneasily. Several painful seconds passed and the large clock on the wall counted each one loudly.

"I think Robert Fox works night shifts at the mine," Watts said, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. The entire room seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "He's an electrical technician."

The word 'electrical' rang in Hotch's ears. It seemed to have been a recurring theme throughout their time in Green Valley.

"Wait," Reid said, apparently having had the same thought as Hotch. "Sheriff, you said there had been a lot of power outages recently."

"Yeah, so?" he said sharply.

"Am I right in thinking that every time there is a power outage, someone else goes missing?" Reid asked, keeping his gaze level despite the Sheriff's acidic tone.

"Now you mention it…" Falconer said, scratching his balding head.

"Fox is an electrical technician in charge of an entire mine," Reid said, talking more to the team now as he sounded out his idea. "In theory, he could overload the mine and cause a power surge that would knock out the power for the whole town."

"But why?" Watts asked.

"Because it means he gets the night off work to abduct someone," Hotch said. "It also means that people's homes are in darkness and there are no streetlights. He is setting up a perfect environment in which to abduct people without being noticed."

"There was another power outage last night," Rossi said, turning to Hotch and looking grim.

"I know."

"So he has probably abducted someone else already. And we only have a few hours to find them."

* * *

Rossi, Prentiss, Reid and Morgan were already at Robert Fox's house, tearing it apart in the hopes of finding something that could lead them to the next victims, but Hotch had remained behind with JJ to give a press release.

The Sheriff walked up behind Hotch and said abruptly, "Jacob Fox was my friend. I never thought he would actually hurt Robert."

"You don't need to explain yourself to me," Hotch said.

"I thought the kid was just messing around." Hotch gave a non-committal murmur and continued towards their room at the other end of the bullpen.

"What was I supposed to do?" the Sheriff asked, and Hotch snapped.

"You were supposed to investigate the allegations that Robert Fox was being beaten by his own father!" he said. The Sheriff looked taken aback. "Or you could have at least handed the case over to someone who wasn't personally involved with the family. If you had done that, and the boy had gotten some justice maybe he wouldn't have become a serial killer." He slammed the glass door of the conference room, very aware that he had overstepped the line. He stood for a few seconds, trying so hard to pull himself together that he didn't even notice JJ enter the room.

"I've just had a call from a man who says his wife and daughter have gone missing; Mary and Rosie Banks," she said.

"He's sure they are actually missing?" Hotch asked.

"Yes. The Unsub left another note. It said "Tick Tock Agents."

"He knows we're here." Hotch said. He took out his cell phone to update the rest of the team when it began to ring in his hand. A number appeared on the screen that he didn't recognise.

"This is Agent Hotchner," he said.

"You don't have long Agent," said a man's voice.

"Who is this?" he asked, waving at JJ. She realised immediately who was on the phone and called Garcia to try and trace the call.

"You know who this is. You're little team has already ransacked my house."

"Yes, we did. We were looking for Mary and Rosie Banks."

"You think I'd be stupid enough to keep them in my house?" Fox said.

"No, I don't think you're stupid," Hotch said, trying to keep him on the line long enough to pinpoint his location. "You've come this far without getting caught. It's very impressive."

"You're damn right it's impressive," he said. "Not even the FBI can catch me. You don't even have any evidence against me except your stupid profile which, by the way, is total bullshit."

JJ gave Hotch the thumbs up, telling him that they had Fox's location.

"We have every intention of getting Mary and Rosie back," Hotch said.

"I would _love_ to see you try." And the line went dead.

"He's in a warehouse a few miles out of town. Garcia had already sent me the coordinates," JJ said.

"Let's go."

* * *

A short time later, the entire team was poised to enter the enormous grey warehouse where they expected to find Fox and his latest victims. Hotch glanced at Morgan and pulled the door open, trying to move the heavy steel as quietly as possible. Morgan slipped in immediately, gun raised, followed by Reid, Rossi, Prentiss and JJ. Hotch brought up the rear and he was hit with a blast of hot air as he entered the steel building. They spread across the warehouse in perfect synchronicity, checking every corner in a matter of moments.

"Clear!" came Morgan's voice.

Hotch felt around the wall for the light switch and flipped it. Row by row, the warehouse lights came on revealing the little girl and her mothertied to a pipe against the wall. They were both blindfolded but the Unsub was nowhere to be found.

"I don't get it," Reid said, staring at his cell phone and looking all around him. "The GPS tracker on Fox's phone says he is right here. Exactly here."

Hotch called for the medics and a few seconds later, the mother and daughter were free and being escorted from the warehouse. JJ and Rossi walked out with them, no doubt hoping to interview the mother before she was taken to hospital.

"Hey Hotch!" called Emily, her voice emanating from behind a pile of crates. He went over to where Prentiss was standing with Morgan, both of them looking at something on the floor. As he got closer, he saw what looked like a set of hinges and a handle drilled in to the concrete floor.

"There's a trapdoor here." Morgan said. He stamped his foot down on the floor and Hotch heard the hollow sound of wood. "It's a fake floor, this whole section isn't concrete. There must be a basement or something."

"Okay, open it," Hotch said, pointing his gun towards the hatch. Morgan did the same and Prentiss took hold of the metal handle. She looked at Hotch and on his signal she pulled the trapdoor open in one swift move. There was nothing visible but a dank, dirty floor and a ladder.

"We'll check it out," Morgan said, climbing down the ladder and in to the dark with Prentiss close behind.

"Be careful," Hotch said. Prentiss and Morgan were back in under two minutes and they pulled themselves out of the hatch.

"I don't know what that is," Prentiss said, "but it's not a basement."

"It must be three, four maybe five times the size of this warehouse and there are tunnels everywhere," Morgan said. Hotch called over the rest of the team and phoned Garcia, putting her on loudspeaker as JJ, Reid and Rossi joined the group.

"Sir, what can I do you for?" said the always perky technical analyst.

"Can you get the building plans for this warehouse?"

"I'll have them for you in just a hot second, sir." He stayed on the line, hearing the clicking of her keyboard. A moment later, Garcia spoke again,

"You, sir, are standing on a partially built mine."

"Another mine?"

"Yes indeedio," she said, "but this is something of an illicit one. A few years ago, five young fellas bought this warehouse and they said they needed it for storage, but their pants were well and truly on fire because they started digging tunnels in the basement looking for a mineral called-"

"Molybdenite," Prentiss said. Hotch, Reid, Rossi, Morgan and JJ all shot her the same surprised look.

"What?" she said. "I'm not allowed to know stuff?"

"Points to Prentiss," Garcia said. "It's a mineral that has rhenium in it. It sells for a pretty penny so these kids started selling it to a... shall we say 'less than credible' aircraft building company. Long story short, there was a big plane crash and the whole scandal was uncovered. A lot of people were killed, it was terrible. The boys all went to prison and the warehouse has been abandoned ever since."

"So you're saying there is a whole network of mines underneath us where the Unsub could be hiding?"

"Yeah."

"Is it safe down there?" Hotch asked.

"Super duper safe, sir, according to the reports I have here. Most of the tunnels were blocked off and it was all reinforced with beams and the likes."

"Could you - "

"Send you a map of any remaining tunnels? Already done, sir."

He thanked Garcia and hung up, mildly amused by the number of times she had called him "sir", clearly overcompensating for her embarrassing slip of the tongue the day before. He opened the file Garcia had sent him and gave the map a look over.

"Okay, Prentiss and Morgan you take the first tunnel here," he said, pointing to the first narrow path to diverge from the main passage. "Dave, you and JJ take this tunnel further down and Reid, you and I will take the main tunnel.

The team descended the ladders in to the mine. As soon as his feet hit the rough ground, Hotch felt uncomfortable. He was by no means claustrophobic but being stuck in an enclosed space with an Unsub was not high on his list of favourite things to do. Together, they walked along the damp tunnels. The smell of mould and wet earth was cloying; it seemed that the stagnant air had been trapped down here for years, but at least it was a little cooler.

With six flashlights shining through the darkness, it was relatively easy to see but when Prentiss and Morgan split off from the group, followed by JJ and Rossi a few moments later, Hotch became acutely aware of how dense the darkness was. Every so often, their movements along the tunnel would disturb some of the dirt and rocks that made up the mine walls, making little clattering noises that set Hotch on edge.

When Reid eventually left his side to investigate another smaller tunnel that had not appeared on the map, the only guidance Hotch had through the darkness was the little halo of light cast by the flashlight in his hand. He rounded each corner cautiously, expecting to find the Unsub at every turn. The image of someone appearing from the blackness behind him kept playing on his mind, making him periodically check over his shoulder. He continued in to the deepest part of the mine and realised he had lost all sense of direction.

Ahead of him, he thought he saw a faint flicker of red light.

"Hotch," a voice whispered in the darkness. He jumped a little before he realised that it was only Morgan talking to him through his earpiece.

"Yeah, Morgan," he replied, feeling his heart banging against his ribcage.

"We've reached the end of our tunnel, the Unsub's not here, we're heading back."

"I'm still looking," Hotch said.

As he was speaking, he kept staring ahead for another glimpse of the light he thought he had seen, sweeping every inch of the mine with his flashlight before he proceeded. He couldn't see any evidence of the Unsub but he saw that glimmer of light again, and this time it didn't vanish. The closer he got, the higher the light seemed to become. It was only when he was standing a few feet away from it that he realised the red speck was on the ceiling.. Shining his flashlight directly above him he saw a tangle of wires, a timer, several blocks of C4. He was standing squarely beneath a bomb and he had led his team straight in to a trap.

8...7...6...

"Everybody get out! Get out now!" he yelled.

5...4...

He ran as fast as he could back down the corridor. He could hear Morgan yelling to Prentiss in his earpiece.

3...2...1...

He only just managed to round the corner before the deafening blast filled the tunnels. A ringing filled his ears, so loud that it sounded like screaming. A thunderous rumble shook the very walls as the mine began to collapse. Hotch ran. He bumped in to walls, almost blind in the blackness. He felt rocks fall from the ceiling on to his shoulders. Soon he could hear the voices of the rest of the team and saw flashlights ahead. He could see Reid amongst the falling rocks, Rossi was pulling him, but Reid wouldn't move.

"Reid what the hell are you doing?" Rossi yelled.

"I'm not leaving without him!" the young agent called back. Hotch was so close to them now. A huge piece of rock fell from above and landed on him. Hotch cried out in pain as he felt the crack of his collarbone. He fell to the ground, scrabbling in darkness.

"God damn it, Reid! Run!" Hotch yelled.

"Come on Hotch, you can make it!" He pulled himself up and kept running. "Hotch! Come on!" He was so close now... The last thing he saw was Reid's outstretched hand just inches from his own before the entire mine and the building above collapsed in on them.


	5. Kept in the Dark

When Hotch finally regained consciousness, there was nothing but blackness around him. Blackness and silence.

He was lying on his front, feeling the cold damp ground beneath him seeping in to his clothes and he could taste blood. He tried to push himself upright but he couldn't move his left arm so he pushed hard with his right arm and managed to get himself in to a sitting position. A small rock fell from the ceiling above him and skittered across the ground, echoing through the dark.

It was only then that he realised how fast he was breathing. He tried to steady himself and take a few deep breaths but that, too, proved difficult. He winced as his sides lit up with pain. He tore the Velcro strips from the side of his bulletproof vest and tossed it aside, relieving some of the pressure on his painful ribs. He held his breath, savouring the momentary relief it gave him from the pain of inhaling. He thought he could hear something just then, something so faint that he could scarcely make it out.

"Reid?" He felt around clumsily with his good hand, feeling for his flashlight, his cell phone, anything that might cast some light through the thick darkness that was pressing itself against his eyes. His flashlight was gone but he felt his cell phone in his right pocket. He pulled it out and pressed button after button but nothing happened. He ran his thumb across it and felt the shattered remnants of the screen. "Damn it," he hissed, tossing the phone away.

"JJ? Dave?" he called name after name, but no one replied. "Prentiss? Morgan? Anyone." He kept calling out names between his shaky, broken breaths but stopped because after several silent minutes it began to feel like he was rhyming off a list of the dead. How long would it be before his name was added to the end of that list?

He couldn't do anything except lean against the cold wall and try to keep breathing. Every so often a moan of pain would escape his lips as he exhaled. He had just lost every one of his friends. In the privacy of the dark and the silence he let the tears fall from his eyes. He couldn't concentrate, he could even think because his entire body was burning. He gritted his teeth and pressed his head against the hard wall, groaning in agony and anger.

"Hotch..."

"Reid?"

"Hotch." It took him a moment to brace himself before he pushed himself forward doing his best to stifle the noises of pain that kept escaping from his throat. He crawled across the ground, moving towards the voice and feeling the way with his arm, like a blind man with his cane.

"I'm over here." Finally, his hand came in to contact with something warm. He felt the young man's hand grip his arm firmly as though he thought Hotch was going to disappear back in to the darkness at any moment. He slumped down beside Reid, breathless and weak even though he had only travelled about six feet.

"Have you got a flashlight?" Hotch panted.

"Mine is broken," said Reid. "What happened?"

"There was a bomb. Where are Rossi and JJ?"

"I don't know!" Reid said, his voice rising in panic. "I thought Rossi was beside me." The image of Reid standing amongst the falling rocks came in to Hotch's mind.

"Reid, why the hell didn't you run? You were ten feet from the exit."

"I wasn't going to leave without you."

"Do you have any idea how stupid that was?" he said breathlessly. He was angry, not at Reid but at the horror of the entire situation. Reid didn't reply. "But thank you," Hotch added. "Are you hurt?"

"I don't know," Reid said. "I hit my head pretty hard but I think I'm okay. What about you?"

"I'm fine," he said. He was still piecing together the minutes before the blast. It was as if his brain was refusing to accept that any of this had really happened.

_"We've reached the end of our tunnels, the Unsub's not here, we're heading back." _That's what Morgan had said. That meant that he and Prentiss were deep within the mine when it began to collapse. They would never have made it to the exit.

"What do we do now?" Reid asked, still grasping Hotch's arm.

"Reid?" came a pained voice a few feet away. A flashlight cut through the dark. It burned Hotch's eyes for a moment and he squinted. Once his eyes adjusted he saw Rossi sitting slumped against the wall, holding the flashlight in his bloody hand. The one little disc of light was enough to illuminate the whole of their surroundings.

"You're okay," said Reid.

"I wouldn't call this okay," Rossi groaned. His face and arms were grazed and bleeding, and he seemed only half-conscious. He could barely hold the flashlight in his limp arm, so with a great effort he pushed it over to Hotch.

"Where's JJ?" Hotch asked him.

"I don't know," he said.

"You were supposed to be with her!" he said.

"I was," Rossi shot back, slurring his words slightly. "She was sright b'side me, I swear." He leaned forward and put his head between his legs with a groan. "I think I'm going to hurl."

"Dave?" Hotch asked, immediately regretting his harshness.

"I'm fine. S'just a concussion," Rossi said, waving his hand dismissively, but not daring to raise his head back up. Hotch shone the flashlight around the mine. They were trapped between two enormous piles of fallen rocks in a space no bigger than his office in the BAU. Above them, the ceiling was cracked and sagging under the weight of an entire warehouse above it. The only reason they were alive, it seemed, was because of two wooden pillars that bolstered the walls; two fragile bits of wood that separated them from a hundred tons of cement and rock.

Hotch got unsteadily to his feet and looked around, relieved to find that his legs were more or less uninjured. He stood in the centre of the clearing, terrified to touch the walls incase it brought down the entire structure. There didn't appear to be any way out and the wooden posts wouldn't hold the walls for long. He scanned the floor for another flashlight or a cell phone but instead he saw blonde hair and a limp hand under a blanket of debris and rocks. "Oh God, JJ." Hotch dropped to his knees started pushing away the rubble that covered her. With the assistance of Reid, he pulled her in to the middle of the room. There were cuts all over her arms and face and red-purple bruises were already appearing on her pale skin.

"Back up, would you?" Hotch said, as Rossi pulled himself across the ground beside Reid to crowd round her. "JJ?" He lowered his cheek to her mouth, praying that he would feel her breathing. He could see her chest rising ever so slightly and felt her warm breath on his cheek.

"She's alive," he said.

"Thank God," said Rossi.

"JJ?" he said again, shaking her gently by the shoulder. She didn't stir so Hotch lifted her on to his lap and held her against his chest so that at least some of her body wasn't lying on the damp ground.

"Does anyone have a cell phone?" Both men shook their heads.

"Someone will come and get us," Rossi said.

"I'm not so sure," Hotch said. "After and explosion like that they'll be looking for bodies, not survivors. They might not come for hours."

Hotch felt a gentle vibration against his chest as JJ tried to speak, but all she could manage was a weak murmur.

"JJ? Can you hear me?" She shifted slightly, eyes still shut. "JJ?"

"Aaron," she said. Her eyes fluttered open and for just a second, she looked peaceful and content as though he had woken her from a nap. Then she realised where she was. "Was that a bomb?" she asked incredulously, pushing herself upright.

"Yes."

"Where are Prentiss and Morgan?" she asked. But she seemed to have sat up too quickly and gripped Hotch's arm to keep herself from slumping over.

"We don't know."

She turned around and sat back against the wall, apparently unable to absorb everything at the moment. Rossi and Reid sat either side of her with the same blank expressions.

Hotch put his head in his hands, his head swimming. He could feel something warm and sticky on the side of his face - his ear was bleeding. Presumably he had ruptured his eardrum again. That would account for the ringing in his ears and the thumping pain that radiated on to his face.

He kept reliving the final few moments before the bomb exploded. How could he have been so stupid? Of course it was a trap. Fox had been so organised up until now, he would never have allowed them to trace his cell phone unless he wanted to be found. The note in the Banks's house should have been a huge hint too. _Tick tock, Agents _it had said. How could Hotch have missed such a thinly veiled reference to a bomb?

Fox's words on the phone played over and over in his mind. "_I would _love_ to see you try."_ Fox wasn't just being a smart-ass, he was being literal. Somewhere nearby Fox was sitting, safe and smug watching the last of the warehouse crumble to the ground. It all seemed so obvious now. Clearly his thoughts were showing on his face because Rossi shifted over beside him.

"This isn't your - "

"Don't tell me this isn't my fault, Dave!" he snapped. He felt a sharp pain in his side, as though someone was twisting a knife between his ribs. "I just led my entire team in to a trap. Two of my friends might already be dead and God knows what's going to happen to the rest of us so cut the sympathetic bullshit." Reid shot him a surprised look and Rossi backed off almost immediately, returning to his position beside JJ and leaving Hotch feeling even more guilty.

Beside him, JJ wrapped her arms around her torso and curled up against the wall. For a moment, Hotch thought she was crying but when he looked around at her, there were no tears in her eyes, but she was struggling to keep herself calm.

"Are you okay?" Hotch asked.

"No." Hotch didn't blame her for admitting it. She didn't speak again for a few moments and Hotch turned his gaze to the ceiling which was poised on the edge of collapse. "I'm pregnant," she said. Hotch whipped around to look at her, ignoring the throbbing protests of his head.

"What?" Reid gasped.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Rossi asked. Hotch tried to shift around to face her but every time he moved his left arm, pain shot across his chest and up his neck. JJ looked at him with misery in her eyes.

"I tried to tell you," she said. She was replying to Rossi's question but she was looking straight a Hotch. "I really did. I didn't mean to keep it a secret." She paused for a moment. "It isn't Will's baby." Hotch's eyes widened but before he had time to form a proper response, the shrill ring of a cell phone filled the still air, making them all jump.

"I think that's mine," JJ said, looking around. "Hotch turn that off." He obliged, clicking off his flashlight, still reeling from JJ's announcement. Complete darkness engulfed them again, except for a dull glow emanating from the rocks where he had found JJ. Hotch heard her feet scuff along the ground and heard the scraping of rocks as she fumbled for her cell.

"Got it." Hotch switched the light on again.

"Hello? Oh Garcia, thank God." She put the phone on the speaker with shaking fingers.

"Oh JJ, you're alive." Her voice was cracked and breathless. "I can't get through to anyone else, you're the only one and you guys are all over the news and no one knows what happened!"

"There was a bomb," Hotch said.

"Who is that? Is that Hotch? Oh thank God. Who else is there?"

"I've got Reid and Rossi with me too," JJ said.

"And Morgan? And Emily?" JJ remained silent this time. "JJ. Where are they?"

"I don't know, Pen."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"They were on the other side of the mine when it fell. I'm sorry Garcia, we haven't heard from them." Her only response was a sorrowful little moan. "Garcia? Garcia?"

There was a pause and then she finally replied, "I'm still here."

"Please tell me that someone is coming to get us out of here," JJ said.

"Of course, the rescue teams are on the way. I... I have to go, I need to call Morgan again."

"Okay," JJ said.

"Take care, my doves." And then she was gone.

"I hope Morgan and Prentiss are okay," JJ said, but no one offered any words of comfort or reassurance, simply because there weren't any. In Hotch's mind, there was very little chance that Morgan and Prentiss had survived the mine collapse. The fact that any of them were alive at all was just dumb luck.

* * *

**A/N Thank you for the reviews so far and please leave a review if you are enjoying this fic. Plenty more drama to come! Take care, CMPerry x**


	6. Bad to Worse

Emily Prentiss was sitting in the dark on the damp ground, tired and scared. Her hands and forearms were scraped and stinging from her futile attack against the rocks that enclosed her. Hotch's yell was still ringing in her ears. _"Everybody get out! Get out now!" _Where was he now? If he had been standing close to the explosives, he was probably dead. The thought of that made her feel sick and at the same time she felt totally empty. She wasn't sure how long she had been trapped, but night must have been falling because the temperature in the tunnel was dropping. It was so utterly black that she might as well be sitting with her eyes closed but the adrenaline still pumping through her veins kept her eyes wide open and staring, waiting to see something that would indicate a way out, but there was nothing. Not one solitary speck of light or a hopeful glow coming from above her. There was absolutely nothing.

"My ass is cold," she said.

"Yeah well my face is sore," replied Morgan.

"Sorry."

"Don't be."

"I really didn't mean to hit you so hard," she said.

"Safe to say I'll never tell you to calm down again," he said. "It doesn't end well for my face." Prentiss smiled but winced as the burning pain on the side of her face intensified. She knew her cheek was badly cut but she was too scared to bring her hands up to check just incase it was worse than she thought and one side of her face was hanging off.

"My ass is still cold."

"Come over here then," he said. "Sit on my knee."

"You're kidding."

"Prentiss, we went skinny dipping last night and you think it's weird to sit on my lap?" he asked. Although she couldn't see his face, she could picture his exact expression. One eyebrow raised and a dubious, crooked smile on his lips. "I suppose that makes sense given your relationship with your father."

"Morgan, don't you dare profile me. I will profile you right back and I can guarantee you won't like what I have to say." Now she could imagine him raising his hands in front of himself in a gesture of surrender.

"Okay, okay, if I'm not allowed to profile you, can we play a game or something?"

"Like what?" she asked.

"Truth or dare."

"We're buried alive," she said. "How many dares can we do?"

"Fine, let's just play truth then."

"Okay, you go first. Ask me anything," Prentiss said.

"What's your magic number?"

"Morgan!"

"Hey, you said I could ask you anything. Anyway, we're probably going to die down here, so you might as well tell me. How many people have you slept with?" She could tell from his voice that he was only half serious about them dying, but she still didn't like hearing that very real possibility spoken out loud.

"Fine," she said eventually. "Eleven."

"Eleven?"

"What's wrong with eleven?"

"Nothing," he said. "I just expected a lot more. I thought you were going to say thirty, maybe forty." She felt around with her foot until she found Morgans leg and kicked it hard.

"Well what about you?" she asked. "I'm sure you're pushing triple digits."

"Twenty four… ish."

"Not bad," she said. "Although I gotta say it's ruined your player reputation for me, I was expecting more too." They lapsed in to silence. Their humour was only a thin veil separating them from total panic, and they could both feel the gravity of their situation weighing down on them, threatening to tear their fragile coping mechanisms. There was a distant rumble of falling rocks from somewhere deeper in the caves and the walls shuddered. Prentiss felt a rush of panic as the rumbling got louder, expecting their part of the tunnel to collapse at any moment. But a few seconds later the cave fell silent again and Morgan spoke.

"What about Rossi?" he said, his voice convincingly steady. Prentiss laughed, not realising she had been holding her breath.

"How many people has he slept with?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Well he's in his early sixties, right? So I'm going to say forty-five."

"Forty-five women?" Morgan asked. "Remember he's been married most of his life."

"Well you don't get a reputation like his for nothing!"

"Fair enough," Morgan said, and then he seemed to have and idea. "I have a dare for you."

"Go on," Prentiss said, a little warily.

"If we ever get out of here, I dare you to ask Rossi what his magic number is."

"I never back out of a dare."

"Shake on it." She reached out blindly, trying to find Morgan's hand. Eventually she found him and they shook hands but she didn't let go. Instead she used the hand to pull herself over to him. She lay beside him and rested the uninjured side of her face on his warm shoulder.

"I'm scared Morgan."

"Yeah, me too," he said, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer. "Me too."

* * *

The pain in Hotch's chest was becoming almost unbearable. It took all of his remaining energy not to groan in pain as his lungs repeatedly pressed on his ribs. He felt hot and restless and a cold sweat broke out on his face. He began to regret removing his tight bulletproof vest, wondering if it would have provided his splintered bones with some kind of support. That was what doctors used to do, wasn't it? Bind broken ribs? He wanted to reach for his vest but he couldn't and the voices of his team grew distant and muffled as though he were underwater. He felt so tired, he wanted to sleep, to drift off somewhere without pain and guilt but he remained resolutely awake even as unconsciousness pulled at him. If he drifted off he might not wake up again… As is became harder and harder to keep his eyes open, the realisation hit him that he was going to die.

"We have to get out of here," Rossi said suddenly, taking the flashlight from Hotch's loose grip and beginning to check the perimeter of the cramped cave, looking for movable rocks or a gap that they could squeeze through. JJ sat against the wall opposite Hotch. A drop of water fell from the ceiling and ran down her neck and she shuddered, wiping the cold drip away with her hand. It must be raining, she thought. She returned her gaze to Hotch. Even in the dim yellow light of their single flashlight she could see that he was pale. His forehead was glistening with sweat and he had his head bowed and eyes shut. But every time JJ asked him if he was okay, he would reply with a curt 'fine', barely looking up.

"Hey, Rossi, look over here," Reid said. Rossi joined him on the far side of their cold stone room. "I think we could move some of this rubble out of the way and actually get through."

"What can you see?" Rossi asked. Reid had his face and the flashlight pressed against the wall, peering through a tiny gap. With Reid pointing the light through the wall, it was almost completely dark again in the cave.

"There's definitely another open space and I'm pretty sure the trapdoor is in that direction." Reid started to pull on the rocks. "Hey, I think I can see daylight!"

"Shouldn't we wait for the rescue team?" JJ said, wary of tampering with the fragile structure of the tunnel.

"I'm not sure there's time for that," Rossi said. JJ looked up at the crumbling, sagging ceiling and realised Rossi had a point.

"Okay. Just please be careful," she said. Reid resumed his dismantling of the wall, testing each rock carefully before he pulled it out.

"This is like the most tense game of Jenga ever," Rossi whispered. JJ and Reid both shot him the same incredulous look. "Just trying to lighten the mood." Finally there was a gap big enough for a person to slip through. Reid tucked his hair behind his ears and stuck his head through the hole.

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" Rossi asked.

"I'm trying to find us a way out."

"And what if the whole thing collapses when you are through there? We don't even know how safe it is."

"What else are we supposed to do?"

"Let me go first," Rossi said.

"If the place is going to collapse, it's going to collapse, it doesn't matter who is through there," Reid said.

"It does matter, I'm not putting you in any more danger than necessary."

"But Rossi -"

"This isn't negotiable, kiddo," he said, tearing off the velcro of his bulletproof vest and dropping it on to the ground. "I'm twice your age and nearly retired. If anyone is going through it's me. If it's safe and I can find a way out, then you can come through."

"Be careful, Dave," Hotch said. He barely recognised his own breathless, unsteady voice, but he was watching Rossi fixedly. "And don't take any risks, if you can't find a way out, just come back."

"Don't worry about me," he said with a quick smile and disappeared through the hole. They could hear his footsteps as he shuffled around in the rubble.

"What can you see?" Reid asked after a moment.

"Just more rocks," he said. His voice was a little further away when he continued speaking. "If I can just shift some of these I think I can make it to where the trapdoor should be."

The hole they had made in the wall was the first thing to collapse. Moments later there was an almighty rumble as the rocks on Rossi's side of the gap started to crumble, followed by huge chunks of the ceiling and there was a strangled yell from through the rubble. The entire cave continued to shake as the room where Rossi had been standing filled with rocks and debris.

"Rossi!" Reid scrambled back from the wall. JJ ran towards Reid, pulling him further back from the falling pieces of ceiling.

"Dave!" Instead of retreating from the danger, Hotch stumbled towards the wall of rocks and pulled and pushed and hammered against the boulders. "Dave!" he yelled again. There was no reply. He continued to fight breathlessly against the pile of rubble now separating him from his friend. As the deafening rumble quietened Hotch put his hand against the cold stone, gasping. Then his hand slipped and he fell hard against the wall.

"Hotch, are you okay?" Reid asked. JJ saw him slump against the wall staring at his bloody, trembling hands and broken fingernails.

"Hotch, can you hear me?" He fell to his knees before JJ could reach him and then the rest of his body hit the floor.

"Hotch! Talk to me! Aaron!" He didn't move. "Aaron!"


	7. Desperate Measures

It was 3 a.m. and Penelope Garcia was pacing her warm office, nervously fiddling with a little pink teddy bear. She had programmed her computer to call Derek and Emily's phones simultaneously and constantly. _No answer. _Again and again her computer gave her the same message. _No answer. _

"Damn you computer! You are supposed to be my friend! We fight crime together and you're letting me down!" she said. Her voice was cracked and pathetic sounding. Her trash can was overflowing with used tissues, but she was beyond tears now. Each time her computer brought back its unhappy message of _no answer, _her usually endless supply of hope dwindled even more.

_C'mon Garcie,_ said the tired, fragile voice of her positivity. _Their phones will be broken, that's all._

She sat down in her wheelie chair and lined up her colorful stuffed toys just as her phone began to ring.

"JJ! Hey! How are you doing?" she said, trying to sound as sunny and positive as ever.

"Garcia, I need an E.T.A. on that rescue team. More of the tunnels collapsed and Rossi is missing. Hotch has passed out and I can't get him to wake up." The anguish in her friend's voice made Garcia's already sore eyes fill with tears again.

"I'm expecting an update from them any minute," she said. "Is Rossi..." the sentence didn't bare finishing.

"I don't know," JJ said. "We can't hear him or reach him."

"And Hotch?"

"He's showing all the signs of late stage hypovolemic shock," Reid said. "I think he is bleeding internally. If we don't get him out soon, he's going to die." Garcia was very well acquainted with the sounds of her friends' voices. In the years before they used video-calls she learned very quickly how to judge their feelings based on their words and their tone. But she didn't even need to be particularly skilled at that to hear the panic in Reid's voice behind his matter-of-fact manner.

Her phone beeped as someone called in on the other line. It was her eagerly anticipated update on the rescue attempt. She put JJ on hold and answered the call. The conversation with the rescue liaison was quick and very unsatisfactory. She switched back to the other line.

"JJ you still there?"

"Yeah."

"The rescue team are at the warehouse..." she said. JJ started speaking but Garcia cut over her. "They aren't coming to get you."

"Why not?"

"They are saying it's too dangerous. They need to make it safe before they will send anyone down."

"How long is that going to take?" Reid asked.

"Several hours."

"We don't have several hours!" JJ said.

"Garcia, I don't think we have more than an hour before Hotch goes in to cardiac arrest," Reid said.

She felt like her heart had leaped in to her throat. An hour? That wasn't long enough. She could just picture Hotch lying on the ground, battered and bruised; JJ and Reid sitting vigil by his side as he slowly faded from the world in a dark, cold cave. That was not the way her Boss Man should die. He had endured too much pain, he was too brave and too good to die like that. He was going to live a long, healthy and happy life, he deserved that much.

"Leave it with me," she said.

She ran to her office door and poked her head out, almost immediately locating the very person she was looking for.

"Chief Strauss, Ma'am," she called. The Pima County cops and the rescue unit had been liaising with Strauss since the mine collapse. If anyone could hurry along the rescue attempt it was her.

"Yes?" Erin Strauss turned around, in all her terrifying and formidable glory, making Garcia feel a little nervous. Despite the many years she had worked in the BAU, she still couldn't shake the anxious knot in her stomach that accompanied every conversation with Strauss. It was like she was in middle school again, standing before the headmistress, knowing she had done nothing wrong but feeling strangely guilty nonetheless.

"May I have a word, Ma'am?" Strauss crossed the bullpen and entered Garcia's office. Close up, she looked as tired and stressed as Garcia felt.

"Yes, what is it?"

"Is that Strauss?" came JJ's voice from the phone. Garcia had forgotten to put the call on hold. _Oops._

"Miss Jareau?" Strauss asked, approaching the phone.

"Ma'am we need the rescue teams down here now. If we don't get out soon, Hotch is going to die. Rossi may already be dead." Garcia saw Strauss's face fall and what little color remained in her cheeks drained. Perhaps she hadn't realised quite how bad things were. "Hotch will bleed to death in front of us. Please."

"If the rescue team comes in now without taking the proper precautions, you could all die."

"So you would rather let Hotch die than take a risk?" JJ asked.

"It's a huge risk, Miss Jareau."

"Well I can tell you with absolute certainty that every single member of this team is willing to take that risk to save Hotch."

"I told you, it's out of my hands." But Garcia could see that she was lying. She didn't need to be a profiler to see the doubt in Strauss's eyes. So, Garcia saw her chance and she grabbed it.

"With respect, Ma'am," Garcia said. "I could hack in to the White House and send a direct order from the President to get my friends out of that mine if I have to."

Strauss rounded on her. "Are you threatening me Miss Garcia?"

"Of course not, Ma'am," she said, keeping her gaze calm and level, "but you should know that I will stop at nothing to make sure my family is safe."

"You would spend the next twenty years of your life in prison."

"And I would sleep well at night knowing that I had done everything in my power to save my team."

Strauss stared at her for a long moment, looking furious. She was clearly trying to work out how serious the threat was. The answer was deadly. If Strauss wouldn't authorise the rescue, Garcia would do it her way. JJ, Rossi, Reid, Hotch, Emily and Derek would be safe and above ground before any of the frankly sub-par techies at the White House had even noticed there had been a security breach. Strauss took her cell phone from her pocket, keeping her stony eyes trained on Garcia the entire time. Garcia felt a little rush of panic and doubt that made her feel rather warm and made her hands tingle. Was Strauss about to have her fired? Or arrested?

"This is Chief Strauss," she said, "I want my team out of that mine immediately. No. I don't care. I'm not leaving members of my team to die in order to minimise risk. Get them out. All of them. Now." She hung up and turned to the door but just before she left the room, she looked back. "You are skating on _very_ thin ice Miss Garcia. When all of this is over, we are going to be having an extremely serious talk." The door closed and Garcia slumped on to her chair.

_"_Nicely done, Garcie,"she said to herself. "That was really assertive. Now maybe if you could stop hyperventilating that'd be super." She turned back to her desk to speak to JJ and Reid.

"Hear that, guys? They're coming in for you right now. Don't you worry about a thing my beautiful angels!" There was silence. "Guys?" But they were gone.

* * *

"Garcia? Garcia?" JJ said. She looked at her phone just in time to see the low battery symbol melt away in to the now blank screen. "Damn it, she's gone."

"What was she saying? What was she about to say?" Reid asked, grabbing the phone from JJ and mashing the buttons with his thumb.

"I don't know Spencer! I heard as much as you did. Would you stop pressing the buttons? Garcia knows how urgent the situation is. She'll sort something out, I know she will." Even as she spoke, JJ didn't really believe what she was saying. Strauss said they were several hours away from being rescued and several hours was too long.

They did nothing but sit in frightened silence for a long time. Reid kept checking his watch but JJ was scared to ask how long they had until Hotch lost too much blood. She checked under Hotch's shirt where an enormous purple bruise was spreading steadily across his chest and abdomen. The only thing that broke up the solid colour of the blood pooling under his skin were the slightly paler scars that covered his torso, more scars than she could bear to count. It wasn't fair that terrible things kept happening to such a good man. Reid checked his watch again.

"We're going to lose him," he said in a cracked voice.

"It's not over yet," JJ said.

"I'm going to lose him, just like my father and Gideon," he said, beginning to panic. "Everyone just leaves. Everybody leaves me. I can't do it anymore I can't lose Hotch too I don't think I can cope. What are we going to do?"

"We're going to trust Garcia and Strauss to get us out and we're going to stay calm." She grabbed Reid by the shoulder. "Reid look at me." He did as he was told and she did her best to meet his tear-filled eyes with a look of confidence and comfort. "We are going to be okay. Garcia will make sure we are safe."

"But what about Emily and Morgan?" he asked.

"Come on, Spence," she said, dodging the question. "Worrying isn't going to solve anything. Let's just talk about something else."

Several long moments passed before Reid finally broke the silence.

"Who's the father?"

That wasn't exactly the change of subject she had been hoping for. "Does it matter?" she said. This was neither the time nor the place to start that particular conversation.

"I guess not." They lapsed in to silence again as JJ watched Hotch carefully. She put her hand on his forehead again and found that he was still cool and clammy. Her fingers moved to his neck and she felt for his pulse. It felt weaker.

"How far along are you?" asked Reid.

"Twenty weeks tomorrow," she said. "I'm hardly showing this time."

"Twenty weeks..." Reid looked thoughtful. "That doesn't make sense because twenty weeks ago we were on that case in Boston."

"Spencer."

"We spent all our time either in the precinct or the hotel."

"Just drop it would you," she said, cursing Reid's ridiculously precise memory.

"And we had to share rooms again - "

"I said drop it, Reid," she snapped, a little more angrily than she had intended. "How long do we have?" she asked. Reid lowered his watch in to the torchlight.

"About fifteen minutes." Now JJ was the one who was about to panic. Fifteen minutes wasn't enough. There was no sound coming from above them, no evidence at all that they were going to be rescued. Hotch was going to die in her arms. Suddenly, a loud rumbling surrounded them and debris began to fall from the sagging ceiling.

"Oh my God. It's collapsing." She reached out for Reid's hand and they both stared wide-eyed at the roof. More banging and rumbling and bigger bits of rock started to fall on them. There was an almighty crunching sound and the ceiling sagged a little bit more followed by an ear-splitting crack as one of the wooden bolsters begin to bow and splinter. She put her head down on Hotch's chest and Reid put his arm around her and they huddled together, waiting for the beams to give way.

There was a thunderous crash and part of the wall that separated them from Rossi caved in. Dust filled the air and, glancing up through the haze, JJ saw moving shapes. There was a scuffle, someone shouting "Agent, get your ass back here," and then Morgan appeared through the gap.

"Hey," he said, grinning. The ceiling had stopped shaking and JJ sat up, watery-eyed and in shock.

"Where's Emily?" she asked.

"She's fine, she's outside already. You ready to get out of this hellhole?" He caught sight of Hotch on the ground, pale and dying and his smile immediately vanished. He lifted Hotch bodily from the cold floor and Reid pulled one of Hotch's arms over his shoulder as the first of the rescue team squeezed through the gap and approached JJ.

"Ma'am?"

"I'm fine," she said reflexively. "Did you get Rossi?"

"Agent Rossi is already on his way to hospital. He's alive."

The four men who had been sent down in to the mine helped them get Hotch through the now accessible trapdoor where a pair of paramedics were waiting for him. JJ was guided outside and she felt the dusty ground beneath her feet. The early morning light was blinding and for almost a minute, she could see nothing but white light and colourful spots floating in front of her eyes but she didn't need to be able to see to know that Emily had run toward her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Thank God, JJ. I was so worried! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What about you?"

"Fine." As JJ's eyes became accustomed to the brightness she realised Prentiss didn't look fine at all. "How is everyone else?" Prentiss asked.

"Reid's okay, but he's pretty shaken. Rossi got trapped when more of the tunnel caved in, he's alive but Hotch..." She didn't really know where to start and even when she tried to speak again, she found that she couldn't.

"Oh, JJ."

All the fear and panic that had been beating against her chest since the explosion finally burst through her calm facade.

"I can't lose him, Emily, I can't. I don't even know if he's dead or alive and I can't - I can't breathe." She tried to keep speaking but hot tears began to fall from her eyes so instead she walked back in to her friend's arms and clung to her as the remainder of the warehouse collapsed in to the tunnels, leaving nothing but a flat expanse of bent metal and shattered glass.


	8. Truth and Lies

JJ stood in front of the jostling group of reporters. Her hands were trembling, she felt sick, she wasn't sure she would even make it through the press release and was desperately wishing someone else had volunteered to do it. The reporters had been standing outside the hospital ever since they got wind of the rescue team descending in to the mine. They were already impatient and JJ's hesitance made them even more so. Some of them began to shout questions at her which she ignored. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath and planted her hands firmly on the edges of her wooden podium.

"Following the disappearance of Mary and Rosie Banks from their home yesterday morning, several Pima County Police Officers and members of the BAU were led to a warehouse just off West Duval Mine Road where we had reason to believe Mary and Rosie Banks were being held. We found them and they are both unhurt and back home. However as you will know, there was an explosion in that warehouse trapping myself and five other FBI agents underground. We have every reason to believe that this explosion was intentional and was caused by the same man guilty of the seven other murders in Green -" JJ couldn't continue talking because there was an explosion of yelling and shouting and shoving.

"Agent Jareau! What do you mean seven _other_ murders? Has there been another death?"

"Agent! Did any of your team die in the blast?"

"As a result of the blast," she began carefully. "Two of our senior agents were seriously injured."

"Agent, did either of them die?" JJ suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. The twenty microphones being thrust in her face made her feel suffocated.

"As a result of his very extensive injuries and internal bleeding..." She had to stop and take a sip of water with trembling hands. "As a result of his injuries, Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner died this morning."

"Agent Hotchner, the BAU Unit Chief?"

"Yes."

"Is it true that Robert Fox is the killer?"

"He is one of several suspects." Three more reporters started talking at once. "No more questions," JJ said, stepping back from the podium. She couldn't bare to be up there any longer, she had given all the information she needed to and just wanted to get back to her friends.

* * *

JJ collected her belongings from the OB/GYN ward where she had spent the last couple of hours and headed down to join her friends. Everyone was gathered outside Hotch's room. Rossi looked pale and drained, Reid had dark circles under his eyes, Emily had at least twenty stitches down the side of her face and Morgan had one of his arms bandaged from wrist to shoulder, not to mention a spectacular black eye. They looked well and truly defeated.

JJ sat down beside Rossi who she hadn't seen since they were in the mines. Besides his pallor, a burst lip and some scratches on his hands and face, he seemed remarkably unscathed for someone who had had a cave collapse on him twice, with only a heavily bandaged foot to show for his troubles.

"Hey Rossi, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, just a broken foot."

"That's pretty lucky," she said.

"Tell me about it. Although I do appear to have lost a toe," he said with a small attempt at a smile.

"No way," said Prentiss, scooting a little closer to him. "Why didn't you tell us? Which toe?"

"My little toe. It got crushed and they amputated it while they were fixing my foot. I didn't tell you because I knew you would get that really creepy look on your face. Yeah that one," he said, studying her curious and slightly excited expression.

"Evolutionarily speaking, it won't be that long before humans lose the need for their little toes altogether." Reid piped up. "A lot of scientists believe humankind will soon only have four toes on each foot."

"Hear that?" Rossi said. "I'm evolutionarily more advanced than all you guys."

"Well no," Reid said. "You're pretty much just... missing a toe."

JJ looked over to Hotch's room. The blinds were drawn but she could see moving shapes.

"What's happening in there?" she asked.

"Just family phone calls and stuff," Morgan said, not even bothering to take his head out of his hands. "How was the press conference?"

"Horrible," she said. "They didn't even care when I told them about Hotch, they were more interested in who the killer is."

"That's reporters for you," Rossi said.

"Any news on the Unsub?"

"He stayed in Green Valley for a little while but he went on the run when he found out some of us survived," said Reid. "He's heading for Mexico."

"He can't get away," Morgan said. "Not after all of this."

JJ couldn't bare waiting any longer. She wanted to see Hotch. She hadn't laid her eyes on him since he was dragged out of the mineshaft. She rose from her seat, walked up to the door and knocked three times. There was no answer so she opened the door a little. Hotch's voice drifted out of the room.

"Yeah, buddy, just remember that whatever you might hear on the news isn't true, okay? Daddy's fine, we're just trying to catch a bad guy. I love you, I'll see you real soon. Bye, Jack." When he had hung up the phone, JJ knocked again to announce herself and pushed the door open.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Hotch said. He was wearing a grey hospital gown with one of his arms strapped firmly across his front. His face was dappled with reddish purple bruises and there was still blood around his ear. All in all, he looked dreadful.

"You should be in bed," she said. He sat down on the edge of the bed obediently and rubbed his eyes. "You really think the Unsub is going to come back?" she asked.

"He won't be able to resist putting himself in the middle of the action, especially now he think's I'm dead."

JJ just nodded. Seeing Hotch standing there was almost overwhelming. Giving the press conference and announcing his death had felt far too real. She had been living one of her worst nightmares, the nightmares that had plagued her since she started working at the BAU, that one day she would have to tell the world that someone she loved was dead.

"Don't ever ask me to do anything like that again," she said.

"I know, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," he said, his brow creasing.

"I'm not upset," she said, but her voice and expression betrayed her. She felt tears prick at her eyes and she glanced up at the ceiling. In the few seconds that she averted her gaze, Hotch had stepped forward and pulled her in to his arms. The feeling of his face pressed against her hair; his one free arm wrapped protectively around her back; the warmth radiating from him was more comforting to her than she would ever be able to explain. So she clung to him for much longer than she should because she hadn't felt so safe in months.

* * *

"Okay, is everyone clear on what they are doing?" Hotch said. Everyone nodded their assent. On doctors' orders, Hotch was back in bed and Rossi was sitting with his foot elevated. "The Pima County cops and SWAT team should be here soon, they will be dressed as doctors or nurses and they will all be armed. We should be able to take Fox out ourselves but we will have the cops as backup."

There was a knock at the door and Detective Watts came in, dressed in navy blue scrubs.

"Hey, it's Dr Watson," Prentiss said with a grin. Watts returned the smile.

"Uniforms have just spotted Fox driving through Rio Rico. He'll be back here in about half an hour," he said. "Glad you're all okay," he added, looping a stethoscope around his neck before backing out of the room.

"Remind me why we can't just shoot the bastard the second he steps out of his car," Morgan asked.

"Once Fox is on the ward, he'll be unknowingly outnumbered twenty-to-one and he'll have nowhere to run. This is the safest way to take him down and he'll walk right in to it," Hotch said.

"I just can't wait for this to be over," Prentiss said.

Hotch shifted his position in the bed, feeling rather uncomfortable, and if he was honest, a little emasculated at being the only one lying in bed.

"Okay, Reid, Prentiss and Rossi, stay outside the room and stay hidden. Morgan, I want you in here with me. JJ, I want you to stay with the evacuated patients and staff upstairs," he said. She turned to him with a look of surprise that quickly darkened to one of complete irritation.

"Seriously? You're benching me?"

"I'm asking you to keep an eye on the patients."

"But there are already cops up there. I'm pregnant, Hotch, not an invalid."

"JJ, please."

"No, I'm staying here. I want to catch this guy as much as you do."

"As your Unit Chief I am asking you to go upstairs!" Hotch immediately wished he could take the words back. He could almost feel the rest of his team wishing the same thing.

"As my Unit Chief? Really? You're playing the Unit Chief card?"

"JJ -"

"Forget it," she said. "Just forget it," and she stormed from the room and headed to the stairs.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," Rossi said sagely.

"Yeah, and you would know," Morgan said.

"Watch it, you little punk," Rossi said, throwing him a good-humoured glare.

"What are you going to do about it Limpy?"

"I'll even up that black eye for you."

"Bring it!" Morgan said, smirking.

"Guys," Hotch said. "Fox will be here in thirty minutes, we don't have time for games." He saw Morgan and Rossi exchange a glance and Hotch knew he was being cold, they had every right to be happy but Hotch wouldn't be content until the Unsub was in their custody. The fact that he had just inadvertently insulted JJ didn't help his mood either.

* * *

They had just taken their positions in the ward when the door swung open and Robert Fox rushed in. Hotch lay back and closed his eyes, entirely relaxing his body and hoping that he didn't do something stupid like move his eyes or breathe and ruin the entire operation.

"I heard about Aaron Hotchner," Fox said, managing to sound convincingly sad despite his breathlessness. "Is he still here? I wanted to... say goodbye."

"Are you a relative?" asked Detective Watts, artfully scribbling on a clipboard.

"A close friend." There was a short pause and then they heard his footsteps get louder as he entered Hotch's room. Hotch heard Fox make a little noise of pleasure, just inches from his ear and felt his warm breath on his skin.

"Poor Agent Hotchner," he breathed. "How dreadful it must have been for you to be buried underground. So dark, so cramped." He wandered around the bed and Hotch held his breath as he felt Fox's sleeve brush against the side of the bed. "Now you know how I felt when I was thrown in to a closet for days. This is how far I had to go to get any recognition from the cops. And you know what?" he said, dipping down again as though he was telling Hotch a secret. "I'm going to kill Falconer next. Maybe now he'll listen to the Dark Desert Killer."

"Alright, that's enough," said Morgan, slamming open the closet door. "Get your hands up, Fox." He turned and looked at Morgan, quite calmly.

"Nice black eye," he said. "Did I do that?"

"I said get your hands up." Reid and Rossi entered the room now, pointing their guns at him. Again, Fox remained perfectly calm. He looked at Rossi, standing awkwardly in the doorway, trying to keep his weight off of his crushed foot, and a little smile crossed Fox's face.

Hotch opened his eyes, pulled his gun out from under him and sat up.

"He said, get your hands up," Hotch said. Fox whipped around, a startled look on his waxy, unshaven face.

"You're going to have to try harder than that to kill one of us," Rossi said. Fox's surprised expression became one of fury as he realised that his entire plan to kill them had failed. Then suddenly he became absolutely calm again, as he moved his hand to his coat pocket.

"Get your hands out of your pockets, Fox!" Prentiss yelled.

"Hands in the air, now!" Morgan said.

"Don't do it!"

Fox clenched his hand in his pocket and began to pull something out. Something black and metal came in to view. Morgan was the first to fire his gun and Rossi was just a split second behind. Blood spattered the white hospital walls as two bullets caught Fox in the chest he was dead before he hit the floor. His hand fell from his pocket still wrapped around nothing more than a cigarette lighter.

* * *

Hotch sat in his bed feeling restless and he had no one to talk to. The manager from the Green Valley Inn had personally dropped off their go-bags at the hospital, not without giving Hotch her best wishes, an overly eager smile and her phone number. The rest of the team had left to get washed and changed. Even Rossi had been allowed out of bed and he had hobbled off to get cleaned up, although, in fairness, Hotch had been the only one to have major abdominal surgery. He looked out on to the ward and watched the real doctors and nurses trickle back in to replace their counterfeit duplicates while the cops collected their guns and headed off the ward. When Hotch looked back to the door, he saw JJ standing there leaning against the doorframe in a fresh set of clothes, her hair dust-free and back to its usual vibrant blonde.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey."

"How did it go with Robert Fox?" she asked, entering the room and sitting on the end of his bed.

"Suicide by cop," he said. JJ looked over to the far wall and the floor beneath it which were both still damp with cleaning fluid.

"Yeah, I heard the gunshots." She glanced over to him, as though gauging his mood before continuing. "I would have seen all the action if my Unit Chief hadn't sent me upstairs." Hotch frowned, unsure how irritated she was. He didn't regret ordering her away, but he could have been more tactful about it.

"I've heard your Unit Chief can be a bit of an ass," he said. She glanced away, poorly disguising a smile as he foiled her attempts at being annoyed.

"He's not an ass, really," she said. "He's a good man and he was only trying to keep me safe…" She paused for a moment. "Listen, Hotch - " The door was pushed open and Rossi entered, followed by a nurse. Hotch felt a rush of annoyance. He couldn't seem to have an entire conversation with JJ without someone interrupting.

"There we are Agent Rossi, I need you to hop in to bed and keep that foot elevated. And Agent Hotchner," the nurse said, "I need to take a few more blood samples from you." Hotch barely registered her words, he was still watching JJ intently, waiting for her to finish what she was saying but she seemed to have changed her mind.

"Look, I'll come back later," JJ said. Hotch watched her hurry out of the room, with an unusual feeling of worry and disappointment.

* * *

JJ sat on a plastic seat out of sight of Hotch's room feeling a headache build in her temples. With her eyes shut, she felt Emily sit next to her and she could sense her watching her. Emily had found out about her pregnancy and spent the last hour pestering her for information and clearly she wasn't finished yet.

"Well?" Prentiss asked.

"I didn't tell him."

"JJ!"

"I was interrupted!" JJ opened her eyes and looked at Emily who was looking a little skeptical. "Rossi came back before I could tell him." A doctor appeared a few feet away from them at the coffee machine and JJ pulled Emily in to the empty room behind them, not wishing to be overheard.

"Does Hotch know it's his baby?" Emily asked.

"He must. It's not like I've been sleeping around since Will left. It was just him. It's always been him."

"So what's wrong?"

"Well, he's obviously going to do the proper thing and offer to support me and the baby but I don't just want his support. I want to be with him," she said, trying and failing to keep a note of desperate panic from her voice.

"Then tell him," said Emily. JJ couldn't help but feel worried. It had been a long time since she had felt comfortable laying her feelings bare to anyone.

"He wants the same thing," Emily pressed.

"How can you know that?"

"Because he loves you, JJ. You can see it every time he looks at you."

"No he doesn't," JJ said.

"Yes I do."

Hotch was standing in the doorway behind JJ, leaning heavily on the door handle and looking at her with such intensity that it almost knocked the breath out of her.

"I'll leave you guys to it," Emily said, flashing JJ a knowing smile as she left.

"Hotch…"

"So, we're having a baby," he said pushing the door shut and transferring his weight on to the arm of a chair.

"Yeah," she breathed, trying to measure his reaction.

"You could have told me sooner," he said. His expression barely changed but JJ could see a little sorrow in his eyes.

"I know, I wish I had told you as soon as I found out but I was scared and confused and I didn't know what you would think."

"This is pretty scary for me too, you know," he said. He finally managed to stand upright and he closed the gap between them. She wrapped her arms around him, wishing she could hold him closer but scared she would hurt him. Hotch put his one free arm around her and pulled her tightly against him regardless.

"I want us to be family, JJ," he said, his voice muffled by her hair. The feeling of relief was immense as though her entire body had been tensed up for the last five months, like she had been holding her breath worrying about Hotch's reaction and now she could finally breathe.

"Me too."

"Me and you, Jack and Henry and the baby. We'll make it work."

"I know." Hotch kissed the top of her head and put his hand on the little bump that was barely visible under her loose blouse.

"When are you due?"

"April 10th."

"And he's okay?" Hotch asked.

"Totally fine," she said. "You think it's a 'he'?"

"I don't know. Do you know?" he asked.

"I don't know either. I got a scan earlier but I wanted us to find out together." She pulled out a piece of paper on which the doctor had written down the gender of the baby and suddenly realised that she was quite nervous. She shifted the paper between her fingers for a moment and felt her hands get a little sweaty. "I can't do it," she said, handing the paper quickly to Hotch as if it was radioactive. "You look." Hotch looked like he might collapse any minute and JJ made a mental note to get him straight back in to bed as soon as they were done. He opened the piece of paper slowly. Once it was unfolded, JJ really thought he was going to pass out until a bright smile crossed his face.

"How do you feel about having a daughter?"

* * *

**A/N Well, that's the Unsub taken care of but we aren't quite done yet! Still more to come involving Morgan, Prentiss and Garcia (and everyone else of course). Stay tuned and please leave a review to let me know if you enjoyed this chapter! CMPerry x**


	9. It's Only Just Begun

"Prentiss, you said you would do it," Morgan said.

"I know but -"

"No buts Scarface, get your ass in there." Morgan grinned as he shoved Prentiss in to the room where Rossi was sitting reading a book. They had made a deal and she was going to hold up her end whether she liked it or not.

"Hey, Rossi," she said.

"Hey," he said, lowering his book. She sat on his bed and, although she was disguising it well, Morgan could practically feel the embarrassment radiating from her.

"Okay, listen," she said. "I made a deal with Morgan down in the mines when, frankly, I assumed I was going to die, so please don't read anything to in to this."

"I won't," he said. He looked unfazed but Morgan thought he could see the shadow of a smile on his lips.

"We were comparing how many people we had slept with, and we both assumed the other person was a little more promiscuous than they really were..."

"You want to know if I really do live up to my reputation," he said with a laugh, putting two and two together. He looked as though he was contemplating telling her for a moment but the he sighed. "I would tell you, Emily, really I would, but a true gentleman never reveals that kind of thing."

Prentiss laughed. "Well, I tried! I made good on my dare. You want to get a coffee Derek?"

"Sure," he said. Prentiss walked out first and as soon as she was out of earshot, Rossi spoke.

"Want to know the truth?"

"Hit me," Morgan said.

"I lost count a decade ago."

* * *

JJ and Prentiss sat side by side outside Hotch's room, both of them dozing off occasionally. The ward was very quiet, only a few small lamps lit the otherwise dark walls. It was still relatively early in the evening but it had been completely dark outside for almost an hour.

"Why didn't you tell me Will was having an affair?" Prentiss asked suddenly.

"Hm?" JJ said, lifting her head from Emily's shoulder, taking a moment to register what she had said. "I don't know… I wasn't planning on telling anyone, not for a while anyway," she said, feeling slightly guilty even though Emily's tone was not accusatory. 'But Hotch walked in on me crying and he wouldn't let me go until I told him what was wrong." JJ stretched and yawned and sat up properly. Emily hadn't said anything else but JJ felt the need to keep explaining herself. "It was bad enough admitting it to one person, I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone else."

"I could have helped, you know."

"I know. It wasn't you, I was just too embarrassed."

"So that's how you and Hotch ended up getting together?" Prentiss asked. There was a loud thump and a woman's voice came through the door along with the sounds of many plastic bags and the scrape of a suitcase.

"Don't tell her the story without me!"

"Garcia?!" JJ and Prentiss stood up to greet their unexpected friend as she bustled through the door, arms laden with more luggage than she could possibly need.

"I brought your spare go-bags," she said, beaming widely. "And some snacks and gifts." She dumped the bags on the floor and pulled them both in to a hug. "Oh, I was so worried about both of you! I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to you!"

"What are you doing here?" JJ asked, laughing.

"Well it's not like you're going to be working any cases for a few days so I wasn't really needed in Quantico, but I couldn't just sit at home and not see your lovely faces so I acquired myself a seat on the first flight to Arizona and came to see you!"

"You 'acquired' a seat?" Prentiss asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The details don't matter," Garcia said, waving a sparkling hand. But JJ and Prentiss exchanged the same doubtful glance.

"What aren't you telling us?" Emily asked. Garcia looked at them both for a minute and her luminous facade slipped ever so slightly.

"Curse you profilers," she grumbled, starting to fiddle with her chunky purple necklace. "I've been suspended for two weeks, pending an investigation in to my suitability for the Bureau," she said as though reciting it from an official document. JJ's mouth fell open.

"What did you do?!" Prentiss asked.

"I may have threatened Strauss..." she said. Both women stared at Garcia, shocked and impressed in equal measures. "Oh and I may have also threatened national security," she added. "Like I said, the details don't matter."

"You got yourself in to all that trouble to get us out of the mine?" JJ asked, feeling suddenly overwhelmed with disbelief and gratitude. Garcia shrugged in an attempt at nonchalance, but her eyes grew a little watery.

"Of course. I'd do anything for you guys."

"Hotch owes his life to you," JJ said. "We all do."

"Speaking of Hotch," Garcia said, clearing her throat and reapplying her vibrant smile, "tell me _everything_!"

"There's not much to tell," JJ said, but Prentiss and Garcia were both staring at her, excited and expectant. JJ took a deep breath and wondered where to start. "So I guess over the past six months we had been spending a lot more time together. Hotch was the only one who knew about Will's affair so whenever I needed to talk to someone, I talked to him."

"If this wasn't such a darn romantic situation, I'd be a little offended that you didn't tell me," Garcia said. "But continue, continue!"

"At first we just chatted in his office, then we started going to dinner sometimes, and we would meet up for playdates with the kids. Then we went out to Boston for that school-shooter case and Hotch and I had to share a hotel room. The night we caught the Unsub, everyone went out for drinks," JJ said, addressing Garcia now since she had not accompanied them on the case. "We had a few drinks and everyone went back to the hotel and… one thing just led to another I guess."

Prentiss smiled and Garcia made a high-pitched noise of excitement. "But you had totally had feelings for him before that night, right?"

"Yeah," JJ admitted. "We had been seeing so much of each other and then one day I just looked at him and realised that I had fallen for him." She smiled a little as the memory came to the forefront of her mind.

_"Jack, please don't go far!" Hotch called, keeping a close eye on his son and he ran in to the middle of the park, with Henry scurrying after him as fast as his little legs could manage. The sun was warm on JJ's neck and she could smell the cut grass. Her eyes instinctively followed Henry wherever he went and she watched him run after Jack who, it would seem, was his new idol. In his haste, Henry tripped over his own feet and landed on his hands and knees. JJ was about to go and pick him up before he started to cry. He always cried when he fell, not because he was hurt but mostly because of the shock of suddenly crashing to the ground. But before she could start hurrying towards her son, Hotch grabbed her by the hand._

_"Give it a minute," he said. JJ watched for a moment longer and saw Jack realise what had happened. He ran up to her son and pulled him to his feet, brushed the grass from Henry's knees, took his hand and started showing him how to kick a football. Henry didn't even shed a tear. _

_"That's one heck of a kid you've got there," she said, looking up at him, a rare smile on his face and JJ felt her heart hammer in her chest. "You must be proud."_

_"Very," Hotch said, putting his arm around her. "He loves Henry, he thinks the world of him. And so do I."_

_"That makes three of us," JJ said, slipping her arm around Hotch's waist and leaning her head on his arm. A light breeze blew through the trees, bringing with it the smells of summer and some relief from the warm sun. JJ let out a sigh. _

_"How are you doing?" Hotch asked._

_"I'm great," JJ said, and for the first time in weeks, she really meant it. She watched the boys run and chase each other, both of them squealing with laughter."Hey, do you want to take them for ice cream?" she asked. _

_"Sounds great," he said and then he leaned down and kissed her. It took them both a few moments to realise what had just happened. It had felt entirely natural, completely normal as if they had been a couple for years, it hadn't felt like their first kiss. Hotch laughed a little nervously._

_"Sorry," he said. _

_"Don't apologise." JJ said, unable to stop smiling._

_"Good, because I'm not sorry." She looked at him for a moment longer, marvelling at this relaxed and carefree side of Hotch and wishing the day didn't have to end._

_"Ice cream then," she said at last, before her staring became creepy._

_"Ice cream," he said. She slipped her hand in to his and they walked across the field to get their kids._

The sound of a laugh brought her back to reality. Garcia and Emily were staring at her and she had the uncomfortable feeling that one of them had just asked her a question and she had no idea what they had said.

"Um… what?" she asked.

"I was asking…" Prentiss said with a mischievous glint in her eye, "how was it?"

"How was what?" JJ asked, pretending not to understand the question.

"You know! How was it? Your night in Boston," Garcia pressed, making JJ a little uncomfortable.

"Come on JJ, you didn't tell us about Will or Hotch! You owe us this much!"

"Emotional blackmail," JJ said. "Nice."

"I bet he's great in bed," Garcia said, so caught up in the romance that she was clearly forgetting that this was her boss she was talking about. "He's so kind and caring in person, I'm sure that translates in to the boudoir…"

"Garcia!" JJ said, feeling her face turn redder.

"But I bet you he can rattle a headboard too," Prentiss said, staring off in to space. "Like a screen door in a hurricane…" she added dreamily.

"Guys seriously!" JJ said.

"We're only messing with you," Emily said, nudging her playfully. "I'm really happy for you."

"Me too," Garcia said. "Now, my second order of business, where is my enormous hunk of chocolatey goodness?"

"He's down in the cafeteria with Reid," JJ said.

"I will see you guys later," she said, grinning and hurrying off to find her favourite man, completely abandoning the seven or eight pieces of luggage she had brought with her. JJ and Emily fell in to exhausted silence once again and JJ was pleased to finally feel the heat in her cheeks begin to dissipate.

"So, you and Detective Watts," JJ said slyly, feeling like a little revenge was in order. Emily laughed.

"Yeah, he seems nice."

"He likes you."

"He does not."

"You should ask him out."

"And say what? Hey, Detective, do you want to travel two and a half thousand miles to go out for a drink sometime?"

"Well, we're going to be in Arizona for another three days at least," JJ said. "Go on. Bring your number up to an even twelve."

"Morgan told you?!"

"Morgan told everyone," JJ said.

"I'm going to kill him," Emily said, standing up and JJ wasn't entirely convinced that she was joking.

"You can kill him later," she said, pulling her friend back down on the chair. "You guys seem to be pretty close lately," she added and Prentiss gave a small, very un-Prentiss like smile, gazing down at her leather boots.

"I guess," she said.

"Are you sleeping with Morgan?" JJ asked, completely caught off guard by Emily's sudden coyness.

"No!" she said, snapping her head back up. "Of course not! No! Definitely not."

"But you want to," JJ said.

"An inter-office romance?" she asked, looking skeptical. "No offence, JJ, but isn't it all a bit… messy?"

"Relax," JJ said, smiling. "Everybody's doing it."

* * *

Later that night, Rossi was the only person still awake. The entire team was crammed in to his and Hotch's room where they had spent the evening talking and laughing and sharing stories. The memory of their ordeal still hung over each of them, but being together was enough to keep everyone smiling, especially since Garcia had arrived. Prentiss had been the first to fall asleep, squashed on to a little chair beside Morgan. In true slumber-party style, Morgan had taken the liberty of drawing a long twirly moustache on to the uninjured side of her face without so much as disturbing her, before falling asleep with his arm draped over Garcia who was asleep on his other side. Reid was out-cold beside Rossi, with his skinny limbs hanging off every edge of his armchair. JJ had fallen asleep next, squashed on to the little hospital bed beside Hotch.

Rossi saw Hotch stir in the small hours of the morning. He had been woken by the pain in his shoulder, not that he would admit it, but Rossi could see it in his face.

"Hey," Rossi said.

"Hey. Can't sleep?" Hotch asked quietly.

"Nope." They sat in tired silence for a few moments and Rossi watched Hotch glance at JJ from time to time, his forehead creased in a little frown.

"Go on then," Rossi said. Hotch looked confused.

"Go on what?"

"This is usually the part where you tell me how worried you are about not being good enough. And that you don't think you'll be enough for JJ and you'll mess your relationship up et cetera, et cetera," Rossi said. Hotch smiled and shook his head a little.

"Sure, that still terrifies me," he said. "But I'm just taking it one day at a time." He looked back down at JJ with one of her arms lying across his chest and her fair hair falling over her eyes and he smiled. "Something tells me we're going to be fine."

Rossi was surprised by Hotch's positive outlook and wondered how much of it was genuine and how much of it was just for show. "That's good to hear. I hate seeing you torture yourself over things you can't change."

"Like the mine collapse?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah."

"But that _was _my fault, Dave. All of it -" Rossi cut him off with a stern don't-argue-with-me look and Hotch fell silent. Rossi smiled inwardly as he recalled how many times he had used that look on Hotch in his younger years, two decades ago. Two decades, six published books, countless Unsubs caught, thousands of cases closed but the one thing he was most proud of was the man lying in front of him, the best profiler he had ever met, the strongest and bravest man he knew, battered and broken and doing his best to hide it.

"You and JJ are going to be great," Rossi said.

"I hope so. It scares me, you know... how much I love her. I feel like I'm setting myself up for a fall."

"I get the feeling she'll catch you if you do."

Just then, the door to Hotch's busy little room flew open and slammed against the wall. Every single agent jolted awake. Morgan and Prentiss reflexively reached for their guns, bleary-eyed but alert. Detective Watts was standing in the doorway, silhouetted against the lights of the ward. He was pale and out of breath.

"The Sheriff is dead," he said.

"What happened?" Hotch asked.

"He was buried alive last night."

"We've got a copycat," Reid said. Prentiss groaned.

"It's not over," she said. "I thought it was over."

* * *

**A/N Hope you didn't mind a bit of fluff before the action starts back up again because a whole bunch of crap is about to go wrong! Poor guys can't catch a break... Thanks so much for reading!**


	10. Threats

**A/N Hey, sorry for the delay. Up until now, all my chapters were pre-written but now the story is going in a bit of an unplanned direction so it took me a little longer to write! Hope you enjoy x**

* * *

"Who would want to kill the Sheriff?" asked Reid. Emily thought he looked even skinnier in his casual clothes instead of his usual cords and sweater vest, in fact every one looked different out of their work clothes, especially Hotch who was so rarely seen out of a suit but was now wearing sweatpants and t-shirt after refusing point-blank to wear a hospital gown for the third day. The only people who still looked remotely official were the few Pima County officers and detectives that were squashed in to the little hospital room along with the seven members of the BAU.

"I can think of a few people," Holmes muttered. Prentiss studied him as he stood at the foot of the hospital bed, his perpetual frown even more pronounced than usual. He was a hard man to read, and she would be lying if she said she hadn't considered him a suspect for the Sheriff's murder, but after watching him closely all morning, it became clear that he had been affected by the Sheriff's death as much as anyone else, he was just far more reluctant to show it.

"Half the criminals in Pima County will have a grudge against the Sheriff," Watts said. Compared to Holmes, Watts was a profiler's dream come true. Easy to read and honest, it was clear that he had a lot of respect for the Sheriff and he had taken the news of his death hard. Watts caught her eye and gave her a half-hearted smile.

"Let's start by looking in to anyone in the county who was arrested by the Sheriff for murder or attempted murder and is out of prison," Hotch said. "There was no hesitance in this murder, we are almost certainly looking for someone who is comfortable with violence. It's a long shot but we need to try and narrow this down before the copycat kills again." Holmes and Watts left with the rest of the police officers, leaving only the members of the BAU. Garcia pulled her laptop out of her bright yellow bag and opened it.

"I'll start working on those possible suspects," she said.

"Absolutely not," Hotch said abruptly. "Call Kevin and have him do it."

"But sir - "

"No buts, Garcia, you can't access FBI files while you're suspended. Your career is already on the line and I'm not going to let you jeopardise it further." Garcia looked like she might argue for a moment but instead she did as she was told.

"I hate not being able to do anything!" she said a few moments later, after she had finished her call with Kevin. Morgan put his arm around her and gave her a comforting squeeze.

"You saved our lives, Baby Girl. You have done plenty already!"

"I don't regret what I did, not for one single second," she said earnestly, "but I don't want to lose my job either. I can't imagine not seeing your beautiful faces every day!"

"I promise you, Angel, if you get fired I'm quitting too and I'll make Strauss sorry she ever messed with my girl." As soon as Morgan said that, Prentiss had an idea.

"What if this is about revenge? Someone could be getting back at the Sheriff for Robert Fox's death."

"Like who?" JJ asked. "Fox wasn't close to anyone."

"But what about his father, Jacob?" Prentiss said. "He still lives in Green Valley."

"183 West Cedro Drive, to be specific," Reid said.

"And he has a long history of violence," Prentiss added.

"You think he could have killed Sheriff Falconer?" Rossi asked.

"According to Holmes, the Sheriff and Jacob Fox were friends for years," Prentiss said. "Jacob might have been a terrible father but if you found out that your best friend had been involved in the death of your son, I bet you'd be pretty damn angry."

"It's a possibility," Hotch said. "Prentiss, you go to his house and talk to him. Morgan, Reid and Garcia, go back to the Sheriff's department and work on a preliminary suspect list." He looked at Rossi for a moment, taking in his bruised skin and plastered leg. "Do you want to stay here, Rossi?"

"No, I'll go to the Sheriff's department. I'll be fine if I can sit down."

"You're getting old, Rossi," said Morgan.

"Say that again and I'll smack you," said Rossi.

"Okay," said Hotch, with a faint smile. "JJ, you go with Prentiss to Jacob Fox's house and bring him in."

Emily was pleased that Hotch had selected JJ to accompany her, he had clearly learned that JJ didn't appreciate being wrapped in cotton wool and it also meant that Emily would have plenty of time to find out more about the secret life her friend had been leading for the past six months.

* * *

A little less than an hour later, they arrived at Jacob Fox's front door. The painted door was blistered and chipped and the tall weeds of the front lawn were creeping up on to the porch and in the failing light of the evening, they looked like long claws reaching up from underneath the house. Prentiss laid her fingers on her gun reflexively, as though checking it was still there as she remembered the long list of assault charges that Jacob had accumulated over the past few years, along with a substantial drinking problem. JJ rapped loudly on the door.

"Jacob Fox? FBI." There was complete silence from inside. JJ waited a few moments and hammered on the door again. "Jacob Fox! This is the FBI, we need to talk to you."

Emily hopped down from the porch, avoiding the cracked and splintered steps and pressed her face up to one of the filthy windows. She caught a glimpse of her own reflection and frowned at the ugly red cut along her cheek before refocussing her eyes to investigate the inside of the house. It was as neglected as the outside and it was hard to tell if someone even lived there at all. Bottles and broken furniture littered the floor and she was pretty sure there was a rat moving around under the coffee table. Still squinting in to the living room, Emily heard JJ's walk across the porch.

"Emily." Something was wrong, that one word was all she needed to hear and her hand flew to her gun as she whipped around to face JJ. She was still standing on the porch but it wasn't her footsteps that Emily had heard. Her blue eyes were wide with fear as the shadowy shape of a man stood behind her, his arm around her neck and his gun pointed to her head.

"Put your gun down," Jacob Fox said quietly. His face was almost entirely hidden as he used JJ as a shield but Emily could make out his thin jaw and sunken eyes through the darkness.

"How about we both put our guns down," Emily said. "We just want to talk."

"Put your gun down on the porch or I shoot her," he said, thrusting the gun harder in to JJ's forehead. Emily obeyed this time, slowly placing the gun down on the rotting planks. "And your cell phone," Jacob added.

"Let's just stay calm," she said as she dropped the phone as well and Jacob stepped forward and crushed it beneath his heavy black boot.

"You aren't the agents I was hoping for," Jacob said, glancing around skittishly but never lowering his gun from JJ's temple. JJ wasn't moving but she was struggling to keep calm.

"Who were you hoping for?" JJ asked. It was one of the first techniques they learned in hostage negotiation; start a conversation with your captor, build a rapport, make them see you as a person and not a bargaining chip but Jacob wasn't taking the bait.

"Shut up," he spat, tightening his grip around JJ's neck, making her hands fly up to pull at his arm. Even from several feet away, Emily could smell the bitter stench of alcohol on his breath.

"Who _were_ you hoping for?" Emily asked quickly, trying to divert his attention back to her.

"That black guy and the old fella," he said. "They shot my son, they are going to pay, I'll make sure of it." JJ abandoned her efforts to pull Jacob's arm away from her neck and instead she started inching her hand towards her belt and towards her gun.

"What makes you think it was them?" Prentiss asked, keeping Jacob's eyes on her.

"Sheriff told me. First I thought it was him that killed my boy, but he was pretty damn quick to tell me that it was your agents. Thought it would save his life, I suppose. But I killed him anyway."

Emily glanced at JJ. Her hand was just a few inches from her gun, she almost had it.

"If you put the gun down I'll take you to them," Prentiss said but Jacob ignored her. JJ was so close now, she closed her fingers around the butt of the gun but before she could pull it from its holster, Jacob began yanking her off the porch and groping around her waist. He pulled the gun from her belt and threw it in to the bushes. JJ tried to struggle away from him as he felt around again until he found her handcuffs but this time he threw them to Emily.

"Put them on."

"Don't, Emily," JJ choked.

"Shut up!" Jacob yelled. "Put the cuffs on or I'll shoot her in the face I ain't kidding around!" Emily fumbled with the cuffs and fastened them around her wrists as quickly as she could. Jacob's large hand went roaming again, searching JJ's pockets for her cell phone. Once he found it, he put it in his own pocket and began dragging JJ towards his pickup truck.

"Get in the truck," he said to Emily. JJ shook her head but Emily didn't know what else to do.

"Where are we going?"

"I said get in." He was drunk and angry and completely unpredictable. He could pull the trigger for absolutely no reason and then JJ would be dead. And her baby. _Oh my God, the baby, _she thought. Hotch would be destroyed. And Henry and Will and Garcia and Reid… If she could just get JJ out of danger, even if that meant putting herself at risk instead, it would at least be a small victory. So she pulled the door handle with her bound hands and stepping in to the truck. Jacob slammed the door shut and Emily realised the windows were completely blacked out, she completely lost sight of Jacob and JJ. There was a cry of pain, a loud thump and then Jacob got in to the truck alone.

"What did you do to her?" Emily yelled, as Jacob started the engine. "What did you do? JJ!" She struggled to reach the door handle, "JJ!" She kept screaming her friend's name until Jacob pointed his gun at her.

"Shut up, just shut up!" he said. "Someone is going to pay for killing my boy." He backed out of the drive and began weaving down the dark streets with one hand on the steering wheel and the other awkwardly pointing the gun to her chest. The violent swerves of the car threw her back and forth across the back seat, unable to steady herself with her hands as they drove out of town and in to the desert, leaving JJ far behind. Emily tried to remember every turn and memorised every possible landmark she could see out of the windshield and she realised how strange it was for a captor not to blindfold his hostage. Then she realised that it didn't matter if she saw where they were going, because Jacob Fox was planning to kill her.

* * *

Hotch lay in bed, feeling irritable and useless. He felt as though he had spent this entire case either unconscious or in bed. _Some leader, _he thought. He sat up straight and pushed himself to his feet, despite the burning pain in his chest as his stitches pulled at his skin. He walked slowly over to his go bag in the corner of the room feeling a little nauseated and when he bent down to find a pair of socks, there was a sickening sensation in his chest and he could almost hear the sound of his broken ribs grinding together.

"Hotch?" Morgan had appeared in the room with a stack of paperwork from the Sheriff's office.

"I'm fine," Hotch said, straightening up slowly and returning to the relative safety of his bed. "Is that the suspect list?"

"Yeah," said Morgan, eyeing him warily. "You sure you're okay? You look kinda pale."

"Fine," he said, gesturing for Morgan to hand him the papers. "That's a lot of suspects."

"Four pages of them," he agreed, leafing though the sheets.

"Any luck questioning Jacob Fox?" Hotch asked.

"JJ and Prentiss haven't brought him in yet," Morgan said, and Hotch became a little concerned but before he could worry too much, Morgan's phone rang.

"Hey, speak of the devil," he said. "It's JJ." Hotch wondered why she had called Morgan and not him and he checked his phone for missed calls but there were none. He realised that he was no use in the investigation while he was stuck in hospital but he would have liked JJ to check in. Morgan answered the call but remained silent for a long time, listening intently. In fact he didn't speak a word for the entire phone call but his expression spoke volumes. Something was very wrong. When he hung up at last, all he said was,

"Jacob Fox has Emily."

"Where?"

"I don't know."

"Where's JJ?"

"I don't know," he said, moving towards the door.

"What do you mean you don't know? He called from her cell phone," Hotch said, his voice and his temper rising. "Where the hell is she, Morgan?"

"I don't know, man! I would have asked but he said if I spoke he would kill Emily. He didn't even mention JJ, I don't think she's with them." He ran his hands over his head, pacing anxiously in the doorway. "I need to find her. I have to go."

"Get Garcia to trace JJ's cell," Hotch said, pulling on his shoes and grabbing a sweater.

"You aren't going anywhere, Hotch," Morgan said.

"We are a lot closer to Jacob Fox's house than anyone else, I can't afford to wait for the cops to get there!"

"You're going to kill yourself," Morgan said, but when he met Hotch's gaze he seemed to realise that there was no reasoning with him.

"Will you just help me?" he asked. He hated the sound of the words but he couldn't make it all the way down the stairs and out to the SUV by himself. Morgan grabbed two sets of car keys and helped Hotch out in to the main part of the ward, pausing only momentarily to avoid one of the nurses. They stepped in to the elevator and Morgan hammered the B button with his thumb for the entire journey down to the dark basement where their SUVs sat waiting. Hotch pulled open the driver's door of the closest vehicle, fighting back the waves of dizziness and nausea that kept threatening to submerge him. He closed his eyes and leaned on the car door, taking deep breaths and willing himself to keep going for JJ.

"Hotch?"

"Just go," he said, waving Morgan away. "Find Emily. Back-up won't be far behind."

Morgan got in to his own SUV and tore out of the basement parking lot, following the coordinates that Garcia had sent to his phone. JJ's cell phone was about four miles outside of town and hopefully so was Emily. Morgan could feel the rage growing inside him, something he hadn't felt for along time. If Jacob Fox harmed Emily, he would kill him. There was no hesitancy, no doubt or uncertainty in his mind, only fear and anger. If anything happened to Emily, he would be lost, so the only option was to get her back and nothing in the world was going to stop him.


	11. A Shot in the Dark

Prentiss sat in the back of the car for what felt like hours. Jacob had abandoned JJ's phone twenty miles back meaning no one knew where they were. It could be hours before anyone came to find her, but hopefully someone would have found JJ by now. There was a gnawing anxiety in her stomach, not only because she was being held hostage but because she had no idea what had happened to JJ. Every time she thought about her, her anxiety grew dangerously close to utter panic.

For almost an hour now, Jacob had been wandering around outside the car while Emily tried to form a coherent plan for escape. Once Jacob was sober she might be able to reason with him, get him to surrender, but while he remained drunk, none of her plans were without risk.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and looped her handcuffed hands around her legs, trying to keep warm as her breath began to rise in little clouds from her mouth. A second killer had been so unexpected that they had very little information on Jacob Fox except what they found out when they were raking through his son's past. Prentiss wished Reid was here, he would remember every minute detail but instead she had to settle for her own distinctly average memory. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the files they had read.

Jacob Fox was 67 years old, he had lived in his house on Cedro Drive for twenty-five years, his wife, Terri had fallen down the stairs and broken her neck twenty years ago. It was ruled an accident despite some evidence that she had been pushed. Her death had been a stressor for Jacob and after that, he had started hitting his son, Robert. Maybe because he had accidentally killed his wife. And maybe Prentiss could use that to get under his skin.

Jacob unlocked the car and climbed back in to the driver's seat and she caught sight of JJ's gun which was stuffed in to the waistband of his worn jeans while his own gun was held tightly in his hand, pointing in the region of Emily's shoulder.

"Can you just put the gun down?" she asked.

"I'm not stupid."

_That remains to be seen_, she thought.

"Who do you think will get here first?" he asked, as easily as if he was asking her who might win the football. "Agent Morgan? Or maybe some of those useless cops from the Sheriff's Department. I suppose it doesn't really matter, I'll just hold you hostage until I get what I want."

"And what do you want?"

"To kill the bastards that killed my son."

"I won't let that happen."

"You won't have much of a choice, sweetheart." His speech was less slurred now and he was considerably more articulate than she had expected, nothing like the stereotype she had categorised him in. This was her chance to reason with him.

"They won't sacrifice two FBI agents to get me back. It's all about minimum loss," she said. "In fact, once they find JJ, they'll know that you are planning to kill Morgan and Rossi and they won't let them anywhere near this truck." Jacob looked hesitant for a second, the only change in his angry and smug demeanour for several hours.

"What makes you think that little blonde agent is still alive?"

"Because I don't think you would hurt a woman," she said. "Not on purpose." It was a wild stab in the dark, but when the colour drained from Jacob's face, she knew she had found his weak spot.

"Not on purpose," he echoed.

"You pushed your wife down the stairs," she said and she held his gaze firmly for a few moments until he finally looked away.

"I didn't mean to," he said quietly, staring down at his knees. He shook his head, he began to fidget and look around wildly, growing more and more agitated. "I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to!" He threw the car door open and stumbled out in to the cold. Prentiss slipped though the space between the front seats and out the door to find Jacob illuminated in the yellowish glow of the truck headlights, doubled over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath and muttering to himself.

"What happened to you, Jacob?" she asked. "How did you end up like this?"

"How the hell do you think?" he said between short, rasping breaths. "I started drinking and I didn't stop."

"Because of what you did to Terri."

"I wanted to forget."

"But instead you made Robert suffer. He lost his mother and then he lost his father too."

"He just gave up when she died. He stopped trying in school. He started acting out. It made me so mad. He had just lost his motivation."

"Maybe you beat it out of him," she said. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to push Jacob so far, but if she didn't get him to break down, there was still a chance he would decide to kill her.

"I hated myself for what I did to him," he said, his fists clenched so tightly that they were almost entirely white.

"But you kept doing it for eight years."

"I didn't mean for it to go on for so long!" he said, his voice rising. "It's a vicious cycle. I couldn't stop!"

"Eight years, Jacob." He covered his face with his hands and let out a loud, tormented yell. While his eyes were covered, Prentiss lunged forward and grabbed JJ's gun from his waistband, pointing it at Jacob's chest.

"Drop the gun," she said.

"I didn't mean for any of this," he moaned, seemingly unconcerned that she had a weapon.

"Put the gun down, Jacob." He slid down the side of the car and landed with a soft thud on the ground where he put his head back in to his hands and started sobbing uncontrollably.

Great, Prentiss thought, rolling her eyes. She kept her gun on him but left him to his grief for a short while. There was very little she could do until back-up arrived anyway, neither of them had the keys for the handcuffs she was wearing, they were still in JJ's pocket.

"The gun, Jacob," she said again. His convulsive crying changed just then, and she realised that he had started to laugh. He dropped the gun on the ground.

"It's not even real," he said. Prentiss dipped down and picked it up, finding it much lighter than she had imagined. It was a decent replica of a Beretta but it was entirely made of plastic. The trigger didn't even move. "It's just for show. Never fired a gun in my life," he said.

"Could have fooled me," Prentiss muttered, dropping the gun back down beside him. She leaned against the hood of the truck, feeling slightly more relaxed now she knew Jacob wasn't armed.

"You didn't kill JJ did you?" she asked. He shook his head and she felt relief wash over her. Now she could concentrate on getting herself out of this mess and getting Jacob to turn himself in.

"Just stuck her in the basement," he muttered. "God, what is wrong with me?"

"Why did you kill the Sheriff?" she asked. Jacob ran his hands tightly through his short hair.

"I can't believe I did that... I... I don't understand."

"Why?" she repeated, more out of curiosity than anything else. Now that he wasn't waving a gun in her face, she found herself feeling a little twinge of pity for him. He had killed the Sheriff, he had kidnapped her and hurt JJ and he wanted Morgan and Rossi dead but for all of his actions, he was still nothing more than a tormented man, being forced to face his demons and hating himself more and more every second because of it.

"I thought he had killed Robert," he said. "And I was so drunk, I didn't listen to reason. I jumped the gun and now he's dead."

"You need help, Jacob," she said. He just nodded. Prentiss gazed up at the clear, navy sky, littered with bright stars and wondered how long it would be before back-up arrived. She couldn't drive handcuffed and despite his repentance, she still wouldn't trust Jacob behind the wheel.

"The cops will be here soon," she reminded him, and this time he didn't threaten to hold her hostage or kill her. _We're making progress,_ she thought. "Are you going to turn yourself in?"

"Yes," he croaked. Several minutes passed where neither of them spoke and Prentiss began to get a little bored. The only thing to break the silence was an occasional sniff or groan from Jacob, who was now completely sober for the first time in God knows how long and seemed to be struggling to come to terms with everything he had done. He remained crouched on the ground and Emily kept stargazing, admiring the ethereal swirls of light above her. At one point, she thought she heard the crunch of tyres on the dirt but when she paused and listened harder, she was met by nothing but silence.

"I believe you, by the way," she said after a while, not bothering to take her eyes off the sky.

"About what?"

"That you didn't mean to kill your wife." Behind her, she heard him get to his feet.

"Thanks," he said. "That means a lot." There was a movement just in front of her and she was both surprised and relieved to see Morgan approaching swiftly from out of the darkness. But he didn't even look at her, he just raised his arm, pointed his gun at Jacob and shot him between the eyes. Emily turned around just in time to see the old man hit the ground, an expression of complete shock still on his bloodied face. She looked back at Morgan who was visibly shaking, uncontrollable rage in his dark eyes. He was barely recognisable as the man she knew.

"Morgan," she breathed. "What have you done?"


	12. Revelations

**A/N Here we go, this is the second to last chapter so I hope you enjoy. As you'll start to see, I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Thanks for all the reviews so far, keep them coming if you enjoy this and stay tuned for my final chapter and my next CM fic! **

* * *

"Morgan," she breathed. "What have you done?"

"He had a gun," Morgan said, standing beside her and looking both angry and confused at her reaction.

"So did I but there was a reason I hadn't shot him!"

"He was going to kill you!" Morgan said.

"He was going to turn himself in!"

"Why the hell are you defending him? I just saved your life!"

"It wasn't a justified shot, Morgan, you could lose your job!"

"Are you serious?" he yelled, as the faint sound of sirens began to fill the cold air. "It was a clean shot!"

"The gun wasn't even real, he showed it to me!" she said, her temper rising too, more out of worry for the consequences of Morgan's recklessness. Morgan looked down at the fake Beretta which was still lying on the ground beside Jacob. As they watched, the pool of blood leaking from the holes in Jacob's head crept further across the sand. Morgan gave short, disbelieving laugh and looked at Emily with more anger and distrust than she had ever seen. Instead of yelling anymore, his voice became quite quiet.

"Did he also show you the 9 millimetre revolver he was hiding?"

"The… what?" Emily said, looking back down at Jacob's body. Following Morgan's gaze, she saw another smaller gun half concealed under the truck where it had fallen from Jacob's grasp. She stooped down to pick it up clicked open the barrel. Six tarnished gold bullets stared back at her.

"That would be the 9 millimetre revolver he was pointing at the back of your head when I arrived," Morgan said, his voice barely more than a growl. "So yeah, it was a justified shot. And yeah, I just saved your damn life." An SUV and three cop cars skidded to a halt beside them just then, sirens blaring. Emily didn't know what to say. Jacob had been playing her the entire time and she had fallen for it.

"He was going to kill me," she whispered, looking from the bullets to Jacob and back again.

"Yeah," Morgan said. He turned and began to walk away from her to talk to Rossi and Reid who had just climbed out of the SUV.

"Morgan," she started.

"Forget it," he said shortly.

"Morgan, please, I didn't know!"

"But you assumed the worst! You assumed that I was the one in the wrong and not the damn murderer standing behind you."

"I thought he was going to come quietly."

"You should have trusted me."

"I did," she said, feeling desperate now. "I do. I would trust you with my life!"

"Just forget it," he said again and strode away from her. She had believed Jacob Fox, a cold-blooded murderer over her own friend. She had so arrogantly believed that she had managed to talk Jacob down, that she had made him see the error of his ways, when really he had been playing her for a fool the entire time. What else had he lied about?

"Is JJ okay?" she asked, hurrying over to Rossi and Reid.

"We don't know yet," Reid.

"Are you okay?" asked Rossi.

_No, _she thought. _I have possibly just made the biggest error in judgement of my career, I was nearly shot in the head by an Unsub that I was tricked in to pitying and I might have just destroyed my relationship with one of the most important people in my life. _

"I'm fine," she said, glancing over to Morgan who was already a little way in the distance, barely visible in the dark, getting back in to his own SUV. "Can you get these damn things off me?" She held up her handcuffed wrists and let Rossi free her.

"Hey," Rossi said, tugging her arm to make her look at him and she reluctantly met his gaze. "He'll come around."

"I don't know if he will," she said. "I've really messed up." Rossi just pulled her in to a hug. She could feel his heart hammering in his chest and realised how worried he must have been for her. It wasn't until she felt safe that she realised how scared she was and how close to death she had been. But although she appreciated the comfort of her friend, she couldn't help wishing it was Derek's arms around her.

* * *

Hotch stumbled out of the SUV and looked around Jacob Fox's front yard. He could barely see a thing, there were no street lamps, not even a light on in any of the neighbouring houses and he suddenly felt like he was back in the mines. His hand moved reflexively to his belt for his flashlight but it wasn't there. He had nothing except his gun. He leaned back in to the SUV and put the headlights on. They weren't shining directly in to the yard but it was enough to cast slanted shadows across the unkempt grass.

"JJ?" He inched forward, gun raised, avoiding the broken bottles and furniture that covered the ground. He made is way round to the other side of the house, with his back to the wall, constantly looking for any signs of JJ when he came across the remnants of a wooden hatch that led down to the basement, splintered across the ground and covered in blood. Whose blood? He looked down in to the dark stairway that disappeared into complete blackness wondering if JJ was down there. Injured. Or dead. His head began to pound and he could feel the blood pulsing in his wrists and his hands tingled as he struggled to contain his panic. Just then, there was a noise from the back yard, like the sound of a footstep on gravel.

He pressed himself against the wall again, inching towards the corner of the house. There was absolute silence now, so quiet that his own pulse was deafening. He paused for a second, listening intently for another noise. There was someone there, possibly just a few feet away from him, waiting to attack him... He whipped around the corner to find a figure standing directly in front of him, their gun raised at chest height, pointing straight at his heart.

"Hotch?"

"JJ!" he dropped his gun almost immediately and pulled her tightly in to his arms. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Are you bleeding?" he asked.

"Just my arm," she said. "He locked me in the basement. It was so dark, I didn't know if anyone would be coming for me so I broke the hatch open but I caught my arm on a piece of wood."

"Did Jacob hurt you?"

"Not really. Held a gun to my head for a bit, but that was all." Now that his panic had subsided, he tried to contain the mess of emotions that were running through his mind. Relief, anger, happiness, guilt, a burning desire for revenge… but as usual, none of them showed on his face. He could feel the blood from JJ's arm soaking in to the back of his shirt, but he felt different, warmer blood on his side. When he looked down he saw that his white t-shirt was turning gradually red from the surgical incision on his abdomen. JJ noticed this too and looked concerned.

"I'm fine," Hotch reassured her but he was secretly relieved to see the flickering blue and red lights of the emergency services in the distance over the black rooftops.

They stood in each other's arms, both as shaken by the evening's events as the other. By the time three squad cars and two ambulances had arrived, Hotch was feeling faint and nauseated.

"You're going to kill yourself one day," JJ said, watching the cavalry sweep the house. Hotch didn't argue. "There are four paramedics and six cops here," she said. "Why did you need to put yourself in danger?"

"There wasn't time to wait for them," he said. "I couldn't just leave you."

"I appreciate the sentiment," she said, "but I don't want our daughter to grow up without a father. So if you could try to be a little less heroic that would be great." The paramedics herded Hotch in to the back of the ambulance and onto a gurney and JJ hopped in beside him.

"I needed to know you were alright," he said, as the ambulance began to drive off, sirens blaring, and a medic began to prod at him with needles full of painkillers while another tended to JJ's bleeding arm. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Here's hoping you never have to find out," she said.

* * *

Emily sat down beside JJ outside the relatives' room, feeling completely sick of the sight of this hospital and it's off-white walls, dim lights and harassed looking staff. The sooner they could go back to Quantico the better. This entire town had brought them nothing but misery.

"Is Hotch okay?" she asked.

"Fine," JJ said. "He did some more damage coming to find me so they had to remove his spleen. He's okay though."

"Good."

"What about Morgan?"

"He's angry. I don't really want to talk about it."

JJ seemed like she was about to speak when a familiar figure walked past them as Morgan strode across the ward and in to Hotch's room without so much as a sideways glance at Emily.

"Okay... that was a little rude," JJ said.

"I told you he was mad."

"You need to talk to him."

"He doesn't want to talk to me."

"Who said he had a choice in the matter?"

Emily appreciated JJ's straight-forward attitude. She wasn't used to wallowing in self-pity after and argument, but Morgan elicited feelings within her that she had trained herself not to feel. Emotions weren't her strong suit, neither were apologies but JJ's no-nonsense strategy inspired her to swallow her pride and confront Morgan head on, whether he was angry or not. So she got to her feet and waited by the door for Morgan to reemerge, feeling nervous and guilty in equal measures. When he finally opened the door again, he took one look at her and turned to leave. Her anxiety immediately vanished and was replaced by complete annoyance.

"Hey, are you going to talk to me or what?"

"Not now Emily."

"Yes now. You're going to hear me out."

"Fine." She pulled him in to a side room where he stood, arms folded, looking sullen, staring around at the shelves of medical supplies. She wanted to tell him to stop acting like a petulant child but hurling insults probably wasn't the best course of action when he was barely speaking to her at all.

"Look, I've said it before but I need you to know that I am sorry. I made a huge mistake in trusting Jacob." He didn't say anything so she continued. "I shouldn't have assumed that you had killed him for no reason but as far as I was concerned he was unarmed and crying like a little girl."

"I thought you would have trusted me," he said.

"You know I do, but I was completely caught off guard. And the way you were looking at Jacob… I didn't know what to think. You were so angry…"

"Because I thought I was going to lose you!" he said, his voice rising. "I was terrified, Emily! I didn't know what I was going to find when I caught up with you." Her feelings of guilt intensified although she didn't think that was Morgan's intention. She hadn't even really considered how scared he must have been. She knew he cared about her, but it was only now, as he let his guard down that she realised exactly how much.

"I know," she said after a moment. "I can't believe I was so stupid." Morgan looked at her for a moment and sighed.

"You're starting to sound like Hotch," he said with a resigned shake of his head. She studied his face, trying to assess his mood and after a few seconds a faint smile appeared on his lips. She took that as her cue that she was forgiven and put her arms around his neck, glad at last to have the comfort of her best friend. He squeezed her tight and kissed the side of her head.

"If anything ever happens to you - " he said.

"Nothing will happen to me."

"It would kill me."

"Nothing will happen to me," she repeated, feeling him hold her tighter as though he was afraid she was going to slip from his grasp and he would lose her forever.

"You make sure of it," he said.

"For you?" she said. "Anything."

* * *

For the second night in a row, they all crammed into Hotch's small hospital room, much to the annoyance of the nurses.

"I'm sorry," one nurse said. "You can't all stay here, it's immediate family only."

"We are family," Reid said and the nurse sighed.

"That isn't what I meant. You aren't really allowed to sleep in here," she pressed.

"We don't mind," said Morgan.

"Yes, but - "

"I'd prefer if they stayed," Hotch said. The nurse's shoulders dropped as she visibly gave up.

"Fine. But no more late-night adventures," she said, looking directly at Hotch. "You're last trip cost you your spleen. Next time you won't be so lucky." Hotch stifled an almost childish smile as she left, feeling like he was back in school, driving his teacher to distraction with the help of his friends. Hotch was about to say how glad he was that the case was finally over, but he held his tongue, not wanting to tempt fate. He wouldn't be surprised if a third of fourth Unsub popped up just to torture them a little more. Things could always get worse, but in the meantime they ordered pizza and spent the evening comparing and admiring each other's battle wounds, playing cards and discussing their best and worst cases. Morgan took great pleasure in watching Prentiss struggle with her pizza, unable to open her mouth wide enough to fit a whole slice in because of the dozen stitches on her cheek. For the first time in a long time, looking around at his colleagues, his friends and the woman he loved, Hotch was happy and if another sociopathic relative of the Fox's wanted to try and kill them, then so be it, but until then he was going to enjoy every minute.

Just after eleven o'clock, Detective Watts came to visit them. He was as warm and polite as ever but a little part of the enthusiastic detective they had met only a few days ago was gone and the Sheriff's death seemed to weigh heavily on his young shoulders.

"You guys think you'll come back to Green Valley sometime?" he asked.

"Nope," Morgan said. "No offence but I don't even think I want to come back to Arizona. Ever."

"I don't blame you," he said. They exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes, tied up the last few loose ends of the case and then he said goodbye. "I forgot to mention," he said, just before he left, "Detective Holmes has just been made Sheriff. And I'm his deputy. Thought you might want to know."

"Congratulations," Rossi said.

"Sheriff Holmes and Deputy Watson," Prentiss said. "It has a nice ring to it."

"It's Watts," he said with a smile before bidding them goodbye one last time and leaving them to their pizza.

"So," Rossi said, picking up the last slice of pepperoni, "in the space of a week, we've taken out two Unsubs, almost died, faked Hotch's death and only lost two moderately important body parts in the process. Strauss will be so proud."

"Speaking of Strauss," Hotch said, "I spoke to her earlier. She wants to see us all when we get back to Quantico." No one seemed surprised but Garcia frowned and started fidgeting with her bracelets.

"Including me?" she asked.

"No. She wants you back at work at 8am on Monday."

"I thought I was suspended!" she said, her voice rising to a surprised squeak.

"Not anymore. The department is under a huge amount of scrutiny after this week's events and the fact that you pissed off Strauss is the least of her worries now. And besides, I have taken full responsibility for everything that went wrong on this case." Everyone simultaneously voiced their unhappiness at this.

"You shouldn't have to do that," Reid said.

"What happened with Jacob Fox was my mistake," Emily said. "Strauss should know that."

"I've made mistakes too, Hotch," Morgan said. "I'll take responsibility for them."

"So will I," Rossi said.

"No," Hotch said. "It's so much easier if I say everything was my fault. It minimises paperwork, and it'll make this whole mess go away much faster without any of you having to be pulled in to court."

They continued to argue with him for another few minutes before they all realised that there was nothing they could say to change his mind.

"And anyway, I could use some time off, maybe a suspension is exactly what I need," he said lightly but everyone continued to frown at him.

"Hey, what's this?" Emily asked suddenly, picking up a little piece of paper on the table by Hotch's bed.

"Remember the manager from the Green Valley Inn? She gave me her phone number," Hotch said.

"Nice," Morgan said.

"You going to call her?" Emily asked, shooting JJ a mischievous grin.

"You know what," Hotch said, with mock deliberation, "I think I'll pass. Why don't you call her, Morgan?"

Morgan laughed. "Nah, man. I think I'm good," he said and Hotch saw him glance at Emily who was smiling warmly back at him.

"Reid?"

"Um, no, I mean, statistically speaking, if she was interested in Hotch I probably wouldn't be her type, really," he said, before adding, "I'm sure she'd be interested in Rossi though."

"Looks like she's all yours, Dave," Hotch said, handing Rossi the number.

"Great," he said, only half-seriously but nevertheless slipping the piece of paper in to his shirt pocket. "Here comes wife number four."


End file.
